Bohemian Vanity
by amishgirl281
Summary: Does not fit with 6th or 7th book. After being hit by a curse, Hermione is sent back in time twenty years and you can just guess who she meets. But what will happen when she is forced into a partnership with someone that she never expected?
1. Chapter 1

_**Disclaimer:** **I own nothing, it all belongs to J.K.R. and I am not getting a dime from writing this.**_

**Hey guys! Yes, I am back, and I am bringing a brand new and edited version of Bohemian Vanity. While it will have the same basic idea as the old BV, it has been changed up quite a bit. My goal is to have the whole story written by the end of November as part of NaNoWriMo, but I will also be working on my own original things but I promise that updates will be more frequent than they have been in the past. Well, I hope you enjoy and please, tell me what you think!**

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Slowly, Hermione regained consciousness. The dark spots in her vision began to fade and she saw that she was exactly where she had been, only now she was on the floor staring up at the ceiling. But something was decidedly different. Perhaps it was the fact that she had just been knocked unconscious by a flash of light that appeared out of thin air, but the room _felt_ different, changed somehow. She tried to lift her head, but her neck refused and so Hermione contented herself to staring at the ceiling for a bit longer.

That's when she noticed, the suspicious stain by the window was gone, along with the chip in the wood paneling. Though she had only been inhabiting the room for hardly two months she was sure that the stain and the chip had been there before she blacked out. And upon closer inspection, she swore that the ceiling looked polished, clean, _new_ almost.

Forgetting completely the resistance of her neck, Hermione lifted herself off of the floor and looked around. All the furniture was where it aught to be, but panic began to settle in her heart when she realized that none of her stuff was there. Her trunk, her books, everything was gone and someone else's books, someone else's trunk, someone else's _stuff!_

Stupidly, she pinched herself hard on the arm to make sure that this wasn't a dream, that she wasn't imagining this.

Well, this was no dream.

And she would have a bruise there later.

Only the sound of approaching footsteps kept her from hyperventilating and without knowing why, Hermione scurried under the bed to hide from the intruder, or possible occupant. She held her breath as the door opened and someone that Hermione hoped to be a girl, walked inside. The girl in question was mumbling under her breath, something about a James and a Donna. She sounded upset and Hermione was more than relieved when she groaned and left the room once more.

Apparently, crawling out from under the bed was much harder than crawling under it and it took a full five minutes for her to wiggle her way out. She stood for the first time since being knocked out, and looked around the room.

She had been right earlier, this _wasn't_ her room. Well, it was the room that she had been living in for the past two months, but nothing in the room was hers. Her brain fought to find a solution to the problem in which she currently found herself in, but nothing came to her except an ever increasing fear that the rooms occupant would come back and catch Hermione standing in the middle of the room.

So, she put her decision making skills to work and formulated a plan. Obviously, she was still in Howgarts judging by Gryffindor robe crumpled on top of the bed, so the best course of action would be to see the Headmaster, whoever he might be.

But where was his office? Was it still behind the stone gargoyle? And how was she supposed to get _into_ the office without the password? And what would she say when she _did_ get into the office? That she blacked out and woke up in what she thinks is a different time?

Hermione mentally shushed herself, and reminded herself that she simply needed to take things one step at a time, and step one was to take off her robe and get out of the room before anyone noticed her and the gleaming Head Girl badge proudly presented on her robes.

And so, draping her robes over her arm, she walked up to the door and took hold of the handle. Fear coursed through her veins as it slowly turned and the door began to open. It was absurd, she thought, to be scared of going out into the common room, especially when there was likely to be only one other person in there at most.

The Head Girl and Head Boy were given separate dormitories away from all of the other houses. It was seen not only as a reward for all the hard work the two particular students had done in past years, but also as a way to encourage students of other houses to come and ask for help and advice when necessary. The Head Boy and Head Girl rooms were connected by a Common Room that looked almost exactly like the one in Gryffindor Tower, except slightly smaller.

As far as she remembered, it was a very short distance between the Head Girls door and the door out of the common room. Just a few paces, she though, and she would be in the clear, at least for the most part.

With one last breath, Hermione slipped though the door and with her head hung down, walked as fast as she could to the door. Unfortunately, one single couch stood in the way between her and her freedom. A couch laden with teenage boys that she was sure she had never seen before.

She avoided eye contact and ran the last few feet to the door and began sprinting down the hallway, robes in hand, past the throngs of students until she came to the one place that she could rely on no matter what the date.

The library.

She didn't dare go inside, not wanting to put herself in a situation where she might end up speaking to someone. Instead, Hermione stood by the door and caught her breath. Only once had she ever been up to the Headmasters office, but she still remembered where it was, just two floors up and to the right would take her exactly where she needed to be.

But then she remembered that she didn't actually have a way to get _into_ his office without the password.

Just take one step at a time, she told herself. What she needed to do right now was get to the Headmasters office and once she was there, she would figure out a way in. After all, she was the brightest witch of her age.

Again, she pushed that thought to the back of her mind and calmly began heading towards her destination. She kept her eyes and her head down so that she avoided all eye contact and she did her best to navigate the familiar halls. Thanks to her long strides and her fast walking, Hermione made it to the stone gargoyle in record time.

But now came the hard part of her task, actually getting into the office. From what she could remember, Dumbledore had been headmaster for decades before she had ever gotten there and she hoped and prayed that he would still be now. So, with that in mind, she began trying a variety of passwords that he could have used, all revolving around sweets of course.

"Berty Botts Beans."

No luck.

"Pumpkin Pasties."

No luck.

"Licorice whips?"

Still no luck.

"Acid pops!"

Nope.

"Oh come on!"

The gargoyle frowned at her.

"Sugar quills."

Try again.

"Jelly slugs!"

No again.

She was finding it hard to think of more sweets. After all, candy had never quite been her thing, that had always been Harry and Ron's area of expertise. For ten minutes, or what seemed to be ten minutes, she stood there thinking and tapping her foot when suddenly, she thought of something else.

"Chocolate frogs!"

This time, the gargoyle began to move and shift and Hermione almost cried out in joy. The second there was enough room for her to squeeze through, she raced up the stairs and began pounding on the door as though she was trying to break it down. In fact, she was pounding so hard that she hardly heard the voice on the other side calling for her to come in.

The sound of a familiar, though less strained, voice sent waves of warmth through her bones as she pushed open the heavy door. She smiled when caught sight of those ever twinkling eyes of her headmaster and she let out the breath that she wasn't sure she was holding.

"Professor Dumbledore, you have no idea how wonderful it is to see you," she said as she strolled up to the desk and sat herself down in the chair.

The headmaster looked at her for a long moment, studying her face, looking confused. "Do I know you?" he asked after a few minutes.

The question surprised her, a fact that made her feel silly. How could she just walk in and expect him to know who she is? After all, she was quite obviously in the past, though she didn't know how far in the past she was, so how on earth would Dumbledore have any idea who she was?

Obviously he didn't.

She considered her words carefully, opening and closing her mouth enough times to look like a fish out of water, before she decided on what to say. "Sorry sir, I forgot that you don't exactly know who I am. Well, for starters, my name is Hermione Granger and I am, or at least I will be, a seventh year student at this school."

Dumbledore looked confused, but nodded for her to continue on and so she did. "I know that this is going to sound insane, but not twenty minutes ago I was sitting in my room when I was hit by a cruse. I'm not sure what curse it was, exactly and I don't know where it came from or who cast it but it hit my time turner. The next thing I knew my time turner was going crazy and everything was spinning. I took it off and threw it away as quickly as I could but the moment I did, something hit me in the head and I blacked out. Next thing I know I was waking up in a time completely different than my own."

A long, uncomfortable silence followed. Her knees began to shake and she looked nervously around the room, never settling on one particular thing. Too scared to look at the expression on Dumbledore's face, Hermione tried her best to think of different ways she could convince him when he inevitably called her insane and suggest that she should be sent to the special ward in St. Mungos.

"I'd be willing to put my memories into a pensive for you to watch, Sir." She spoke into the stony silence.

"Very well then,"He replied with a nod of his head. He took the wand that laid on his desk and with a whispered word and some gentle wand movements, the pensive sat on the desk, not a foot in front of her face. Hermione grabbed her own robes that she had laid across her lap and searched for her wand. A delighted smile crossed her face when she found it, and she quickly placed the tip near her temple and extracted a memory of the incident and also a harmless memory of the future, just in case he needed some extra convincing. These she placed into the pensive and waited patiently for him to look.

Soon, the Headmaster stuck his head into the pensive and Hermione waited, twiddling her thumbs and once more looking around at her surroundings. The pictures on the wall were the same, and rightly so, and nothing seems to have changed significantly, though she had to admit that everything had a newer look to it. But then again, that is what happened when you went back in time, things that were old became new and things that were new became non-existent.

_I wonder what year it is,_ she thought to herself, and decided that once he came back up, she would ask.

She searched the walls for a clock but found none, not that she expected to. The future Dumbledore didn't have a clock on his walls so why should this one? They are, after all, the same person.

An eternity seemed to go by and she seriously considered pulling him out of the pensive, when he finally came up for air, wearing a look that she had never seen on him before.

Compete and utter shock.

He stared at her, mouth mimicking a shored fish. She sat there, her hands folded in her lap, and waited for him to say something.

"I can say that this is a scenario I never expected to deal with as a Headmaster. I trust that you wish to get back to your own time as soon as possible?"

Hermione nodded vigorously, and asked, "If I may, sir, what _is_ the date."

"September 4th, 1976."

Her eyes shot open. Twenty years! She had gone back twenty years!While she had expected the number to be extravagant, she would have never expected to go back twenty years.

Then her mind began to work. What exactly happened in 1976? Was there anything going on? Was Voldemort in power? What in Merlin's name was going on?

"The way I see it, you have one of two options." He cut into the silence, interrupting her thoughts, "You could stay here or you could look for a way to get back to your own time. Obviously, using the time tuner is no longer an option because it is no longer in your possession. I must confess, I haven't looked into time traveling with any depth and so the task of finding a way back will be up to you, that is, if you wish to go back."

"Of course I wish to go back," she snapped back at him, "honestly! How could you think that I would get pushed back here by no choice of my own and be content staying here? I can't stay! Harry needs be back at home, Ron needs me, they won't graduate without me! And I certainly can't stay here. I know things about you and about this school and I can't afford to accidentally slip up and tell you something that you shouldn't know!" Then she continued, a bit more calmly, "No, no, I have to get out of here as quickly as possible."

He nodded. "Very well then, I will get you set up with a schedule and supplies, now, which house were you in before."

"Gryffindor, Sir, I was head girl."

"Well then, in the Head Girls quarters you will remain, as I am sure Miss Evans would not mind sharing." Then with the sparkle back in his eye he continued, "And I am sure that she will appreciate having another female around to help her manage Mr. Potter."

Hermione's blood ran cold.

Evans.

Potter.

Unless that hit to the head caused serious brain damage, she swore that Dumbledore was talking about Harry's parents. She had to make sure. "You mean, Lily Evans and James Potter? I am going to be living with Lily Evans and James Potter?"

"And taking classes with them yes. Why? Do you know them?"

She laughed awkwardly. "I know of them, Sir."

He looked at her for a long moment and said, "Well then, I could put you somewhere else if you would like, though it seems as though the only free bed is in the Slytherin dorms."

"No!" she shouted the moment the suggestion escaped his lips. "I'm muggleborn sir, I would never willfully live in Slytherin, besides, I believe I know people there too."

"I think you will find, Miss Granger, that there are a number of people around here that you know, so unless you wish to stay somewhere other than Hogwarts then you must deal with that fact."

"Yes sir, I understand. It's just that, well, I have a few personal grudges against most of the Slytherin house and, well, I don't know if I could stand a week without hexing them."

For the next two hours, they discussed the details of her stay including the classes that she would be taking, where she would stay, what year she would be in, and so forth. He even asked a house elf to fetch the schoolbooks that Hermione would need, along with some other essentials, all at the expense of Dumbledore, of course, and Hermione assured him that the moment she was back in her own time she would pay him back.

They even worked out a plausible back story for her, though she resisted getting a new name. She insisted that there would be no person alive when she got back that would remember her name.

_After all,_ she thought, _James, Lily, Peter, and Sirius will all be dead by the time I get back. I'm going to be living with ghosts._

So, once they were all finished setting things up, and the house elf had assured them that her things were already settled into her room, Dumbledore floo called Lily and asked her to come straight away.

Hermione braced herself as the red hair came out of the flames and for the first time, she came face to face with the mother her best friend would never know.


	2. Chapter 2

**Hey guys! Sorry it took me so long to post and update. Things have been pretty hectic around here, what with family crap and school stuff. But I did make this a long chapter so I hope you really enjoy. Much thank's to everyone who reviewed!!! They actualy helped me to get this chapter out a bit faster than I had expected. But anyway, I hope you enjoy this chapter and please, please, please review and tell me what you think! Oh, and that whole thing between Sirius and Sev is explained in one of my other fanfics that I should probably work on updating :) If you have any questions, just ask me and I'll make sure to answer them.**

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Her heart stopped beating the second she saw her face. It wasn't the first time she had looked at Harry's mom, she had seen pictures after all, but pictures obviously didn't do her justice.

Harry truly did have her eyes, but that wasn't the only thing that he had inherited. He had her warm smile as well. She truly was beautiful, though not conventionally. There was no makeup covering the bright freckles that were scattered over her pale face and what could only be described as a dainty nose. Lips curved into a smile, and the brightest red hair that Hermione had ever seen that set off her green eyes perfectly.

"You wished to see me, Professor?" Lily asked, looking over at Hermione with a question in her eyes.

Dumbledore nodded and gestured for her to take a seat next to Hermione. "Yes Miss Evans." She sat. "It seems as though Hermione is in need of a place to stay in the castle, and seeing as how there is no free space in any of the seventh year dorms, I was hoping that you would be willing to share your room."

"I would be glad to, Sir, but can I ask why she needs to stay in my room?"

He smiled, the warm grandfatherly smile that Hermione had come to love. " Of course, Miss Evans. You see, the school that Miss Granger was attending was the recent victim to a fire and she now finds herself in need of a school to attend for the rest of her education, and she chose this one. However, as I mentioned, there is no room save for one bed in the Slytherin dorms and with Miss Granger's parentage, it would not be wise to place here here."

"Oh how awful!" Lily exclaimed, turning and addressing Hermione for the first time. "Are you alright? Of course you have to come and live with me, I have plenty of room. Poor thing! To have your school burn down in your last year, I don't know what I would do if I couldn't go to Hogwarts my last year. But don't worry, I'll help and I'll make sure that you have a wonderful group of friends in no time."

Not sure if she should feel excited or terrified, Hermione half smiled. Never did she imagine Harry's mom to be like this. From what he had told her about the memory, she had always figured that Lily had been a tight wad, a rule keeper, strict and disciplined, someone that acted like they always had a stick shoved up their bum, someone like Hermione.

But apparently not.

"Thank you," she replied meekly, not looking Lily in the eye. In all reality, she was ready to bust out into a fit of laughter. This whole situation was totally and completely ludicrous! She suspected that at any moment, she would wake up in her nice warm bed and realize that this was all just one big dream.

More details were discussed over the next two hours and finally Dumbledore pushed them out of his office, telling them to go straight to bed so that they would be nice and fresh for the visit to the village tomorrow.

"The village?" Hermione asked Lily as they walked down the hall towards Gryffindor Tower. She tried her best to remember to hang back a bit and not lead the way. After all, she had no idea where she was or where she was going, right?

"Hogsmeade village, it's just a little way down the road." Lily explained, "It's an all magical village and Dumbledore always lets the seventh years go the first weekend of school, sort of as a congratulations for getting this far. You can go with me, of course, and I'll show you all of the different shops. Oh, and of course were going to have to go to the three broomsticks for some butterbeer."

"Sounds like fun," she replied with an honest smile. But then Lily stopped walking and looked Hermione dead in the eye. She had a worried look on her face and Hermione's heart began to beat faster and in the blink of an eye, she began to imagine the worst.

But nothing she could think of could prepare her for what Lily actually said.

"But I have you tell you," she began hesitantly, "we won't be alone. You see there's this guy here named James and, well, he's in love with me or something like that. I mean, we aren't dating or anything, I don't even think I really like him, but every Hogsmeade weekend since third year he's found an excuse for him and his friends to hang around me. I just wanted to warn you because they can get sort of annoying and I didn't want them to scare you in case they bombarded us."

Hermione laughed and shook her head while inside she started to scream. "Thank you for the warning."

She began to relax when Lily smiled and kept walking. "But the good thing about this is, I can usually get James to buy me and my friends drinks."

Hermione laughed and let Lily continue on about the wonders of Hogsmeade while inside she was going crazy. No, she couldn't let this happen. Just because she had to live with Lily didn't mean that she should be walking around Hogsmeade with the marauders. What if she let something slip? What if she let on that she knew more than she was supposed to know? So much could go wrong, so much! Sure, she knew that there was nothing that she would do back in this time that would effect what was going on back in her time, that was something she had learned in third year, but that didn't mean that she was allowed to go traipsing around telling everyone that Peter would end up killing his best friends and that James and Lily really _would_ get married and have kids one day. They would think she was insane and seeing as how she had _no_ idea how long she would be stuck here it would be best to make friends, not enemies.

But just because there was nothing that she could do to change what was going to happen didn't mean that she could 'hang out' with James, Peter, Sirius and Remus. She knew these men for merlin's sake! Of course, they weren't quite men just yet, but that wasn't the point.

She _knew_ them.

They _knew_ her.

So, if they became close to her now then they would certainly recognize her later. And then it struck her. This had already happened and none of these men in _her_ time had recognized her so perhaps she was nothing more than an acquaintance and that set her mind at ease, at least for now.

The common area was empty when they got back in, much to Hermione's relief. After all, she still had no idea how to explain to whoever saw her what in Merlin's name she was doing in Lily's room. Dumbledore had left that part up to her, saying that it would be up to her if she wanted to tell those in this time that she was from the future. She was sure that eventually Lily would figure something out, after all, she _was_ living with the girl, but Hermione thought it would be safer if no one else ever knew.

For the next three hours, they sat on the couch on the common room as Lily explained the ins and outs of Hogwarts and a weariness began to settle into Hermione's bones. She could hardly keep her eyes open and nodding and responding at the appropriate times was almost impossible. Thankfully, her new friend noticed and took pity on her poor soul and led Hermione to her bed.

Somehow, another bed had been placed inside the noticeably larger room since she had last been in there.

_Dumbledore,_ she thought with a smirk as she collapsed on her freshly made up bed. Lily was saying something about breakfast in the morning but Hermione couldn't maker herself care. The pillow she was lying on was so soft and the covers were so inviting that it barley registered in her mind that there was a pile of new things on the chair by the bed before her eyes closed and she remembered no more.

Sunlight hit her face and warmed her cheek, waking her up from a fitful sleep. She smiled as her eyes began to focus on familiar surroundings. For a few short and precious moments, she was back in her own time, in her own bed, surrounded by her own books and papers, ready to spend the day with Harry and Ron. But all to quickly her precious bubble was burst as Lily's face and all to familiar green eyes came into view. The harsh reality of where she was crashed into her like a tidal wave and she fought off the swell of emotion in her chest that threatened to overflow into tears at any second. And so she rolled over and buried her head into the pillow until the wave of emotion passed and she was able to look Lily in the eye without wanting to turn into a human waterfall.

Finally her hazy eyes began to focus and the face of the kind girl who had so gladly taken her in took shape. She smile and whispered a sleepy good morning.

Lily laughed and shoved a warm and inviting roll under Hermione's nose. "More like good afternoon really. You slept through breakfast and now you best get up or we'll be late for Hogsmeade."

She gladly took the roll and began to shove the warm bread into her mouth and it was only after she had devoured the entire thing that she thought that it would have been better with some strawberry jam.

Lily had moved over to her side of the room and was rummaging around in her things and Hermione took this opportunity to look through the new stack of things by her bed. There was parchment and quills, books for the classes she told Dumbledore that she had been taking, a new set of robes that she suspected fit her perfectly though she noticed with a small frown that there was no shining head girl badge proclaimed proudly on their front. And then she noticed that there were a few extra things there, like a few muggle jumpers and trousers, some books on time travel, and a little purse sitting on top of everything.

Her look of confusion turned to wonder when she opened the pouched and peeked inside. It was full to the brim with galleons! She looked around the room as though the generous donor would suddenly spring out from the air and then when nothing popped out at her she closed the pouch and put it back down while she gathered together some clothes and other items so that she could get ready to go to Hogsmeade. Without even thinking, she made her way towards the head girls bathroom, one of the better perks of taking on such a hefty responsibility, when she heard Lily asked confused, "Where are you going?"

Her feet stilled and her eyes widened as she fought to think of a decent excuse. "I was going to go look for the bathroom," she answered, praying that Lily didn't pick up on the uneasiness in her voice.

"It's the second door on your left in the common room," Lily told her with a strange look. Hermione smiled and nodded her head, walking as fast as she could out of the room so that she could get away from that look that the other girl was giving her. For a brief moment, she knew exactly what Harry and Ron felt when they were victims of her own disbelieving and critical stare and she promised herself that once she got back she would let up on that look.

Lost in her own thoughts, Hermione walking out of the Head Girls room and straight into what she hoped was a man for she pitied any woman with a chest that boasted such masculine features. Her pity turned to horror, however, when an all to familiar voice cried, "Oy," and she looked up into the face of none other than Sirius Black.

Her eyes went wide and her face paled as her feet took over for her brain, which had gone on a temporary hiatus, and ran towards the bathroom. Once safely inside, she put her things down onto the counter and leaned on the cool stone as she came face to face with her own image.

Pale skin and wide eyes still showed on her face as her heart slowed down its rapid beating. Her reaction to Sirius had surprised her, after all, when she met Lily she hadn't freaked out quite as much so why should he be any different.

_Because I knew Sirius,_ she thought, _I knew him in my own time. I've spoken to him, I eaten with him, I have a history with him. That must have been why I freaked when I saw him, it was like seeing a ghost. _

Once her heart was back to beating normally, she mentally prepared herself for the day that lay ahead of her and the eventual introduction to the rest of the marauders, including the man who was responsible not only for the death of her now roommate and her roommates future husband, but for the second rise of the Dark Lord. As she combed her hair, she went through different scenarios and practiced introducing herself without freaking out. She would extend her hand towards the sink and smile at the knobs, picturing Professor Lupin's or Sirius face instead of the polished brass.

Of course she kept her voice down, knowing full well that if anyone heard her speaking to herself and talking to the bathroom fixtures, they would ship her down to Madame Pomfreys before you could say damn.

It never took long for Hermione to get ready in the mornings and today was no exception and all too soon she was walking back into the common room. Without looking at the boys that were sprawled out on the couches, she hurried back into her room and began putting things away. Lily was sitting at her dresser doing something with her hair so Hermione sat down on her bed and fingered the pouch of galleons that Dumbledore had left for her.

"I heard you had a literal run in with Sirius."

"Huh?" Hermione asked stupidly. She hadn't been paying attention and so she had no idea what Lily said but the smile on the other witches face said that she had given the right answer.

"Sirius is the boy that you collied with on the way to the bathroom." She began as she finished brushing out her long weasley-like hair and sat down on her bed. "He and the rest of the boys who I am sure you will meet, and possible dislike, by the end of the day are usually hanging out in the common room with James, the Head Boy."

_How perfect_, Hermione thought as she replied somewhat sheepishly, "I hope I didn't scare him. I honestly didn't mean to run into him like that."

Lily laughed and started to put her shoes on. "I know, so does he and from the sound of it he scared you just as much as you scared him."

The two girls laughed and chatted lightly while Lily finished getting ready. It surprised Hermione to see that Lily, while an obviously dedicated student, was also quite a feminine creature. She wore makeup, fixed her hair, and did all the things that normal girls did when preparing to go out. It was a strange combination that Hermione had not yet discovered in a girl of her age.

After a time, Lily took one last glance in the mirror and deemed herself ready for the day. Hermione grabbed a plan light brown shoulder bag that had been left amongst her things and pocketed her money purse as she followed Lily out of the door. The common room was empty as they walked through it and the halls were oddly quiet too, though she suspected that the rest of the castle was still asleep despite the late hour.

Her heart began to beat steadily faster as they neared the front doors and walked outside into the cool fall air. The smell of rain hung thick as the nights storm clouds disappeared over the horizon and Lily said something under her breath about muddy shoes. Hermione's thoughts were elsewhere as she allowed Lily to guide her toward the village. Things hadn't changed much in the time that she had gone back, save for the newer look to things. Though, it did strike her as odd that Lily didn't once mention the shrieking shack in all of her talk of the village and she sure wasn't about to go asking about it and give herself away.

The trip was, well, interesting. Lily dragged her absolutely everywhere, starting with a wizard ware store that she had never seen, much less been in, before, then ending up in the largest book store in the village. Never before had she thought that a girl could have such varying interests.

Finally, the day ended with a trip to the three broomsticks where Hermione and Lily grabbed a table to themselves and slowly sipped their butterbeer. As seemed to be the norm, Lily quickly filled the silence with the sound of her own voice, talking non stop about one thing or another while Hermione retreated into her own thoughts, only to be brought out again by a great shove into her side. She was about to say something when once more she found herself face to face with Sirius Black.

Only this time, she made sure that her face remained normal as she smiled at the supposed strangers and waited for Lily, who was now smushed up against her, to introduce the intruders.

"Nice going Potter, you almost made me spill my drink," Lily said irritably as she thankfully moved over to get Hermione room to breathe.

She saw James smile in the same lopsided way that Harry always smiled when he thought he had a brilliant idea. "Well then, I guess I should buy you a new one then."

"It's still more than half full so that won't be necessary," and then she glanced over at Hermione's bottle and said, "but it looks like Hermione could use a new one. Why don't you a be a gentleman and get one for her?"

"Oh no, that isn't" Hermione chimed in, but was cut off when James got up and said, "One butterbeer coming up."

She nudged Lily in the side and whispered, "He didn't have to do that you know."

"I know, I just like to see what I can make him do for me," she smirked in return. Then, as though remembering her manners she cleared her throat and gestured towards Hermione as she spoke to the other occupants of the table. "This is Hermione by the way, she's new, just got here last night."

Then she turned to Hermione and began pointing to each one of the boys. "I guess you've already met Sirius," she said as Hermione blushed. He nodded his head and said, "Hello," as his bangs fell in front of his face, making him look quite dashing. He looked so different from the man that she knew and, if she was not careful, she might find herself falling for his good looks.

"That is Peter," she continued and Hermione forced a smile and a hello to the man who would ruin the life of her best friend not once, but twice. She didn't spend much time looking at him, fearing that her anger my get the best of her.

"And last but certainly not least, is Remus."

His warm and sincere smile sent a wave of heat through Hermione's chest and her voice wavered a bit when she said her hello. By far, he was the one that she knew the best so it came as no shock to her that he elicited such a reaction from her. He looked so much better now than he did in her time, it was as though she had gone back fifty years instead of twenty. The deep lines in his face were softened, but still there, and his hair was fuller than normal and lacked that tinge of gray that had begun to develop. His eyes were brighter and they lacked the deep sorrow that hid behind the gray orbs.

By the time introductions were over, James had returned with not one, but two drinks. One for Hermione of course, and one for Lily. She said thank you and, after realizing that Lily wasn't about to introduce him as well, introduced herself.

"Hi, I'm Hermione Granger."

"Well hello, Hermione Granger, I am James Potter." said the boy who looked exactly like her best friend. It truly was an odd thing and she now realized why it was mentioned so much. If ever there was a time when they had been standing side by side, they would have looked more like twins than father and son. The only difference was the eyes, though she could still see Harry's spirit looking through his fathers mischievous eyes.

"Thank you for the drink, James."

He made a show of bowing before he took his seat. "You are quite welcome."

An awkward silence descended over the group as Hermione sipped her butterbeer, keeping her eyes locked to this strange looking knot on the wood of the table. She could feel the boys glancing at her ever so often and she just knew that they were trying to decide whether or not it would be appropriate to interrogate her just moments after they first met. For hours it seemed they sat in their silence until a tiny bell rang in the distance and she could feel a palpable rise mood. Confused, she looked at Lily who was looking at the door with a mix of sadness and annoyance on her face.

"What's wrong?" She asked, but Lily didn't answer. She didn't have to, for just moments later, James' face cracked into the biggest grin as he said, "Snivellus."

Hermione's heart dropped when she looked over to the door and saw her dreaded potions master in teenage form for the first time ever. She didn't get a very good look, though, because his eyes quickly found their table and with a scathing look he ran back outside.

"Damn," exclaimed Sirius, disappointment written all over his face. "I was hoping to use one of my new Zonko toys on him before we got back to the castle."

"Guess you'll just have to try and catch him on the way back," James piped in, sounding just as disappointed.

Next to her, Lily huffed and rolled her eyes. "I still don't understand why you four _insist_ on treating him like that, he never did anything to you."

"Bloody hell, Evans, do you not remember what he called you in fifth year?"

Her face got red and she hissed, "Yes, I remember. But it's nothing that I haven't heard from half of the Slytherin house a thousand times, but I don't see you going after them."

"Let's just say I have _personal_ reasons for torturing the bastard." said Sirius as he relaxed in his chair.

Again, Lily rolled her eyes. "A childhood rivalry doesn't count as a good reason."

Sirius scowled at her and was about to say something when Hermione decided to speak up. "What are you all talking about?"

"Did you see that boy that just walked in?" Remus began. When she nodded her head he shot 'don't you dare interrupt me' looks at the other four and continued on. "That was Severus Snape, a Slytherin that James and Sirius have had it in for since first year."

Remus held up his finger to silence Sirius, who had raised his own finger and opened his mouth as though he was about to make a point. "_And_ Snape has had it in for them for just as long."

Seemingly satisfied, Sirius relaxed and put his hand down . "Over the years, things began to escalate and before long a few regrettable pranks," he paused to glare at Sirius, "have been played on both sides and so the rivalry has turned into an all out war with each person fighting it for their own reason. James here seems to think that he is defending the honor of Miss Evans after Snape called her a vicious name while Sirius here claims, as you just heard, that he is in this because of some sort of childhood rivalry, though I've never quite understood it."

"Sounds childish to me," She said half heartedly. The comment was not received well, however, and for the first time Peter added in his ten cents.

"It's not childish! Espicaly not after what happened with the shre"

Three hands covered his mouth almost simultaneously and Peter never was able to finish his sentence, although he didn't have to. She knew exactly what he was about to say but she feigned confusion anyway. For a moment she tried to get them to tell her, but they kept their mouths shut and eventually their conversation turned off of her future Potions Master and on to more pleasant subjects.

An hour or two later, the six of them began walking towards the castle, tired after a nice but nice day in Hogsmeade. Unfortunately, the peace and amicability didn't last very long for soon a black shape was spotted not too far ahead.


	3. Chapter 3

**Ok, ok, I know I'm like the worst person this side of the mississippi and for that I am truley sorry. But you try getting out a chapter when your can't get on the internet for an entire month. See, I planned on posting LOADS eairler but then I had to worry about finals (which I should have worried about a bit more than I did) and then I went home for a month (holidays in college ROCK!) and I didn't have any sort of connection to the internet on my laptop when I was home and I couldn't just write the chapter here then move it to the other computer because on my laptop I have works and on my home computer I have word and it would have ended up being one huge mess. So, now I'm back at school and can post :) Hopefully a bit more often than I have been. But just FYI: I am taking more hours this semester and in order to get my GPA to where I want it to be, I have to make straight A's which I haven't done since middle school so I'm going to have to make studying my priority over writing which really sucks but that's how it has to be. Anyway, I'm sorry this chapter is a bit shorter than the last one, but if I had made it longer, then it would have gone on for about 20 pages and I wouldn't like that. So, please enjoy and review and I will have the next chapter out very soon (I'm halfway through writing it as I type, so be happy!) Love you guys, and thanks to all of you who reviewed :) **

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"Hey Snivellus!" Cried Sirius, clutching his bag of Zonko's products as he hurried towards the scowling boy. James was close behind him, followed by Peter who looked as though Christmas had come early, with Remus shaking his head and heading up the rear.

Lily grabbed her arm and with a roll of her eyes, began dragging Hermione in the other direction. But before the boys were out of earshot, Lily yelled, "Remember I can take points from you Potter!"

The rest of the walk back to the Castle, Lily ranted on about how horrible James and the rest of them were to treat Snape the way they did. Hermione did her best to try and get a couple questions in but her friend had tuned out the world and was lost in her own James-Potter-Sucks-Land. In fact, she didn't think that Lily took a breath until they got back to the dorm and she threw her pillow up against the wall, knocking down a couple of books in the process.

"Why didn't you stop them?"

"I stopped trying to help him a long time ago." Lily replied in a dead tone. "He's always hated me, ever since we were little, and I finally just gave up trying to help the little snake. Family allegiances only go so far."

Hermione's normally eager and ready tongue stilled and she fought the urge to faint. Had Lily just said _family_ allegiances? No, surely not. That would mean that she was somehow related to Snape which was impossible. He was a pureblood wasn't he? After all, he was a friend of Lucius Malfoy, a death eater and Head of Slytherin House, how could he not be?

"He's family?" she managed to spit out.

"My cousin." Lily spat as though the words were poison on her tongue. "My mother is his father's sister."

"Does anyone else know this?"

"Sirius does, but I made sure he wouldn't breathe a word to anyone. It's not exactly something that either of us are very proud of."

It was obvious from the tone that Lily was using that she no longer wanted to talk about her cousin, but Hermione couldn't help but press the subject. Curiosity was getting the best of her and she knew that it would be useless to try and still her tongue now.

"If you're family, then why do you hate each other?"

Lily rolled her eyes and lay down on her bed. "We just never got along. I used to pull his hair when we were little and he used to use magic on me, though at the time I had no idea what he was doing. All I knew was every so often when I got him angry my nose would turn blue or I'd break out in warts. I always knew he was behind it, I just never understood how he did it until I came here."

"But," she continued genuinely confused this time, "if he's muggleborn then how can he be in Slytherin."

"Because he's not. His mother, my auntie, was a pureblood witch and his father, my uncle on my mother's side was a muggle."

And before one more question could escape her mouth, Lily sat back up and said, "Well I guess we should put away our new things, eh?"

Taking the cue, Hermione grabbed her bag of new things and began to lay them out on the bed. With Lily's urging, she had purchased a new and stylish robe "Just in case you get asked out by a nice wizard," Lily had said, two sensible jumpers, more candy than she would ever have need for, and a few books on time travel that she had purchased without the other girl noticing. Meanwhile, Lily had four bags packed full with robes, jumpers, trousers, some sort of cosmetics that Hermione had never seen before, more candy than she was sure Harry and Ron had ever seen in their entire lives, and much to Hermione's surprise, a fair number of books.

Once everything was nice and packed away, Hermione looked at the clock and realized that dinner would be starting in a few minutes. She told Lily and she immediately ran to her dresser and grabbed her brush. After five minutes of brushing and primping and even a moment of plucking, she deemed herself perfect.

"Are you sure you don't fancy that James fellow?" Hermione joked and received a teasing glare and a small smack on the shoulder. They walked in comfortable silence down to the Great Hall as Hermione did her best to avoid being noticed by the throngs of people heading down to dinner. Though she knew that eventually people would learn her name, that didn't mean she wanted to run down the halls screaming.

The night before she had fought long and hard with Dumbledore about whether or not she should change her name. He had told her that it would be unwise if she wished to get any sort of credit for the schooling that she was to receive while in the time and, after all, wasn't that the whole reason that she was going to be staying in the castle? So that she could still receive her education? In the end, despite her better judgment, she had decided to stay as she was. After all, who would have thought last night that she would be meeting the five people that she had wanted to stay away from most of all?

She had no idea what she was going to do about Remus and Sirius. If she made a big enough impression on them here then there was no doubt in her mind that they would draw a connection between the girl they knew from school and Harry's best friend. But then again, they had never acted strangely towards her before, back in the time where she knew them, so there was no need to worry. After all, she grew up in a time where all of this was already history set in stone.

With that thought in mind, she walked proudly into the Great Hall and followed Lily over to her spot at the Gryffindor Table. It took a moment for Hermione to remember that this was supposed to be her first time in here, but once she did she began to ooh and ah at the wonder that was this room. She asked about the ceiling as all the first years always did and the familiar story was recited back to her as the took their seats.

Her heart dropped when she realized who exactly she was sitting across from.

And next to.

While Lily had thankfully warned her about their unavoidable presence in Hosgmeade, she had failed to warn Hermione that she also sat with them for meals which meant that until she found some friends of her own she would also be sitting with the Maruaders.

Lily had taken the seat next to James, of course, which left Hermione sitting next to none other than Sirius Black and across from Remus Lupin.

So much for not leaving a lasting impression, she thought as she muttered a small hello and scooped some potatoes onto her plate, along with a healthy portion of chicken.

"Please tell me you didn't do anything stupid, Potter." Lily said, breaking the silence as she poured herself some pumpkin juice.

"Me, do something stupid?" He said in a mock hurt tone. "I can't believe you thought I would do something stupid. I'm hurt Evans, I really am."

"Oh come on, you can't honestly sit here and tell me that when you went after Snape this afternoon that all you wanted was some civilized conversation."

Deciding that this was one argument she was not keen on listening to, Hermione instead tried to focus on getting as much food in her mouth as possible in the shortest amount of time without looking like a complete maniac. After all, the sooner she finished the sooner she could retreat to the safety of the dorm and the quiet of her books.

But her plan was thwarted when a certain werewolf caught her attention.

"So you'll be starting classes tomorrow with the rest of us, I take it?"

She nodded, not wanting to risk speaking and spewing a mouthful of potatoes on the poor boy.

"What classes are you taking?"

This time she waited until she had swallowed before giving him an answer. "Charms, Defense Against the Dark Arts, Transfiguration, Herbology, Arithmancy, Ancient Runes, and Potions."

"Merlin," Sirius exclaimed from his seat beside her, "looks like we have another bookworm on our hands. Maybe now you won't be so lonely during all your late night cram sessions."

For reasons unknown to her, Hermione found herself blushing. Her cheeks turned even more red when she looked and saw that her old professor was turning a bit pink as well.

"Oy, Sirius, stop embarrassing the new girl," James shouted from his seat. Apparently he had Lily had finally finished their bickering. "You'll have plenty of time to do that tomorrow during Potions."

Sirius rolled his eyes and leaned in towards Hermione. "Ignore Potter, he's always a bit of an ass after Evans shuts him down. But now that he mentions it, I am the only other Gryffindor that's taking advanced Potions, perhaps I could walk you to class?"

"Of course you can," interjected Lily who had apparently been listening in.

"Great, it's a date then," Sirius winked.

Feeling slightly uncomfortable, Hermione turned to the task of finishing her meal with renewed vigor. And with a wonderfully small amount of interruptions, she was finished. She began to get up and leave, when Lily caught her sleeve.

"Do you remember the way back to the room?"

She hesitated a moment, wondering if in reality four or five trips back and forth to a room would be enough to remember where it was, but before she could respond Lily was motioning to Remus who looked done with his dinner as well. "Remus, would you mind taking Hermione back to the room? I wouldn't want her to get lost."

"No, he doesn't have to," she began but was cut off by the man himself.

He had stood up and was beginning to walk towards the doors when he said, "Yes I do, besides, I was on my way out."

He motioned for her to follow him and with a push from Lily she began her walk towards the door. Remus was a faster walker than she was and he waited for her to catch up by the doors of the Great Hall.

"If you want to walk by yourself I'll understand, I just can't let Lily think that I purposefully let you wander around the castle by yourself," he said to her as she came up beside him.

"I would enjoy the company," she answered quickly. It was true, she would enjoy walking back to the Head Girls chambers with someone else for she had never liked walking the Hogwarts halls alone, but she was torn. If she spent too much time with him than he was sure to remember her in third year, but on the other hand he was a familiar and dear face and she really did want to get to know him before the weight of his friends death settled down upon his shoulders.

An unfamiliar smile lit up his face, one that was much brighter and loads less forced than the ones that she was used to seeing. It was refreshing and she found herself smiling back. Silence descended upon the pair as they made their first few steps towards the Head Girl's room. While in her time she would have no problem walking silently with her ex professor, this silence was not so companionable. It was awkward and heavy and she longed for something to say that would wash it all away but she wasn't sure what she could say. The boy standing next to her, though familiar in appearance, was a total stranger.

Thankfully her companion was not as tongue tied as she seemed to be and the silence that felt more like a dark force that was slowly going to choker her to death was driven away by the sound of his unsure voice.

"Are you looking forward to starting classes tomorrow?"

"Yes I am but I'm a bit nervous."

Remus nodded. "Which is to be expected. I'm starting out on my seventh year here and I'm always a bit worried about the first day, especially when there's a new professor. But I wouldn't worry too much, you do have Lily on your side after all and she will make sure that you're well looked after."

"She is a very maternal sort of girl," Hermione replied with a bit of a laugh, "and I'm very grateful for her. I might have been sleeping in the Slytherin dorms if she had decided to keep her room all to herself."

"I think she was just glad to have a buffer against James and the rest of us. We tend to invade the common room and poor Lily has had to deal with us all by herself." He continued with more than a hint of amusement lacing his voice. "You see most of her friends refuse to come inside when we are there. Sirius has dated most of them and there is not a one that doesn't, on a regular basis, curse the day he was born."

"So he's a bit of a lady's man then."

This time her remark elicited a small laugh. "I guess you could say that. And while we're on the subject, I'd be a bit careful around him if I were you. Like I said, he's taken a fancy to every friend of Lily's so far."

It was surprising to her how relaxed she was around Remus. By the time they had reached Head chambers they were laughing and talking like old friends. She was loathe to say goodnight to him but before she could invite him inside, he was excusing himself and saying wishing her a good night.

Once inside her room she collapsed on top of her bed, exhausted despite her late start. Out of the corner of her eye she spied her pile of new things and realized that the thought of starting a new term seemed terrifying. Her usual excitement was gone, replaced by a ever growing dread of the following day. While she couldn't wait to learn she _could_ wait to spend more time with those that she should never have known.

It took ages for her to fall asleep that night. Her mind just refused to settle down, instead insisting on considering every little thing that could go wrong the following day. A thousand different scenarios ran through her head that night, each worse than the last until she felt as though she would rather live in a hole for the remainder of her life than face classes the next day.


	4. Chapter 4

**Ok, I know there is no excuse for getting this out so late but you see I took up knitting a few months ago and it's sort of taken over my life. It's gotten worse too, now that I've found Harry Potter knitting patterns. In fact, I just finished knitting a Dark Mark bag and I'm almost done making a Ravenclaw bag. I'm going to try to get myself all knitted up for the OoTP premier. I would have just bought a scarf and all that jazz but it's just cheaper to buy the yarn. Anyway I'm on a new writing schedule, at least two hours of writing a day, so I should be getting chapters out quicker. I'm not making any promises though. Every time I do I can't seem to come through. Anyway I hope you enjoy this chapter and please, oh please, review! Reviews are my bread and butter!**

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Morning came quickly and before she knew it, Hermione was being woken up by the rooster alarm that Lily had set for them. It was possibly one of the worst wake up calls she had ever had and was half tempted to roll over, put a pillow over her head, and go back to sleep but Lily apparently had other ideas.

Hermione had never met a morning person before and so it was quite strange when only seconds after the awful crowing, Lily bounced out of bed and said in a very chipper voice, "Wake up Hermione, it's the first day of school and you have to get up and get some breakfast so you can start the year off right."

In response she groaned and gave into her desire, rolling over and placing a pillow firmly on the top of her head. Moments later the blankets were ripped off of her, exposing her uncovered legs to the cold morning air, and the pillow was thrown onto the floor. "Come on, it's time to get up!"

"I can't believe you're this awake." She replied as she threw her legs over the side of her bed and slowly stood up.

"And I can't believe you're this asleep. You got more sleep than me after all."

Rolling her eyes Hermione shuffled over to the pile of things the Headmaster had left her and grabbed a clean uniform, a hairbrush, and the other necessary toiletries. Her sock covered feet allowed her to glide over the hard wood floors with ease and she was soon out the door and away from Lily, the perky monster of the morning.

It wasn't that Hermione hated getting up in the morning, it just took her a while to completely wake up once she opened her eyes and during this wake up period she tended to be a bit more snippy than usual. Her stomach grumbled as she walked across the dark common room, doing her best to avoid all the furniture in her way, and entered the bathroom.

Without thinking she put all of her things onto the counter and began changing out of her pajamas. She had just pulled up the skirt of her uniform when she saw out of the corner of her eye, something in the mirror beside her that didn't look right. Turning her head, her eyes widened in horror as she came face to face with James Potter. He was standing in the middle of the bathroom staring at her with his mouth hanging half open. Out of instinct she grabbed her vest, the only thing within arms reach, and used it to cover the still bare top half of her body. Unfortunately her vest had been laying underneath all of her toiletries and in grabbing the vest everything had toppled to the floor causing a deafening crash that she hardly noticed.

But James had. Apparently the crash had shaken him out of whatever trance he had been in and he quickly ran over, bent down, and put everything that had fallen back onto the counter.

"Sorry," was all he said before dashing out the door.

She barely registered the door opening and closing and it wasn't until she was sure he had made it safely back into his room that she let out the smallest of whimpers. Her face was as red as a tomato from the embarrassment and all she wanted to do was crawl into a hole and die.

She wanted to scream as she franticly put the rest of her clothes on, afraid that someone was going to bust in at any moment. What in the world had he been doing in here anyway? Back in her time the Head Girl and Head Boy had separate bathrooms so that things like this wouldn't happen. Obviously it had been a recent change, given what just happened.

Hermione refused to look in the mirror as she tied her hair back and turned on the tap. She already knew that her entire body was still blushing and she had no desire to see the effects. Once the water was warm enough she began her morning routine of washing her face, brushing her teeth, and doing whatever she could to tame her hair.

It was particularly bushy this morning and for a moment she considered keeping it that way. After all afro's were the style of the time but rational thought took over and soon she had tamed her hair into a neat bun on the back of her head. Gathering her things once more she readied herself to leave the bathroom. Praying that James wasn't there she kept her head down and walked quickly across the room, only to be stopped by someone calling her from the couch.

"Oi, Hermione!"

Relief washed over her when she recognized the voice to be Sirius' and she turned around to face him. "Sirius, right?" She asked pretending not to know his name.

"Nice memory," He answered with a smile that would have made her melt had she not already been forewarned. "Just thought I'd escort you to breakfast before we headed off to potions."

"Alright, let me just get my things together."

Turning, she hurried back into the Head Girls room and into the safety of those four walls. She put away her things from the bathroom and with her list of classes in hand, began to pack her bag for the rest of the day. Out of the corner of her eye she spotted Lily at her desk fixing her hair and asked, "Why didn't you warn me about Sirius?"

"I honestly didn't think he would be that much of a problem, especially not so soon. He usually is just friendly for a week or two and then he "turns on the charm" as he likes to say. But don't worry, if you shut him down a couple times then he'll back off."

"I hope so," she replied as she sat down on her bed. It wasn't as though she hated the attention, she just didn't understand where it was coming from. Yeah she had done some growing up in the past few years, finally received her womanly curves a year or so ago, but that didn't mean that she was turning every boy's head in school. She was still on the plain side with her ever messy hair and aversion to cosmetics. Only one boy had ever noticed her in such a state before, Victor Krum, and she still wondered from time to time what about her had caught his eye.

Hopefully Lily was right. If she ignored his flirtation enough then perhaps he would move on to another girl, if there were any left in the castle that he hadn't tried to pursue. Then it dawned on her, perhaps _that_ was the reason he was acting the way he was. She may very well be the last girl in the castle that he hadn't pursued which also accounted for, what she considered, his low standards when it came to physical beauty.

With that in mind, she grabbed her bag and headed back out into the common room. He was sitting on the couch staring at the fire when she walked in and, thankfully, he was alone.

"Ready for breakfast?"

His stomach answered for him eliciting a growl that could be heard round the world. Hermione smiled and headed for the door but before she could even grab the handle to open it, someone else's hand was already there.

She laughed as Sirius pulled open the door for her and bowed like one of those men from old movies that her mother enjoyed watching. "Why thank you good sir," she told him through her giggles.

"The pleasure is all mine, Madame." He replied in turn as he closed the door behind them.

"Oh so I'm married now?" She asked somewhat sarcastically and then started to laugh again when she saw his confused face. She began to explain, "Madame means Mrs. in French, Mademoiselle means Miss."

The only sign that he was even remotely embarrassed was the slight hint of red she saw grow on his cheeks. It didn't look like he was blushing, more like he had just spent a long afternoon in the sun.

"I think you're the first one to ever correct me." He said with just a hint of astonishment in his voice.

"Out of how many?"

"Not many," he answered her quickly, "one or two maybe."

She just smiled and walked on. It would be better to let him believe that she had bought his lie then embarrass him further.

The Gryffindor table was almost empty when they walked in as was the rest of the Great Hall. It seemed some things never would change. As they sat down in the same spots that they had the night before, Sirius said, "James and Lily and the rest of them should be here soon."

Hermione dropped the spoon full of eggs she had been moving towards her plate when he mentioned James. She most certainly did _not_ want to be here when he showed his face and so she abandoned her eggs, grabbed a bagel and began shoving it into her mouth leaving Sirius to clean up her mess. "Are you alright there?"

With her mouth full all she could do was nod her head and take a big sip from her glass of pumpkin juice to help ease her swallowing. Once her mouth was clear she apologized. "Sorry I just didn't realize how late it was getting and I really want to make sure that I'm on time for my first class."

"We've got a good thirty minutes before we even have to start thinking about leaving, I wouldn't worry about it." Sirius replied. He was looking at her like she was insane as he packed on about twelves pounds of food onto his plate.

If he was going to escort her than there was no way they were going to be out of here by the time James showed up. She was just going to have to do her best to not look at the perverted peeping prat.

Unless, of course, she could think of a way to convince Sirius to leave early. Remus' warning crossed her mind and an idea popped in her head. Once she had finished her bagel she put on her best pout, which needed serious work according to Harry and Ron, and focused it at Sirius. "I know it's early, but maybe you could give me a bit of a tour of the school? You know show me all the hidden spots that the Headmaster didn't include on his tour?"

By the look on his face, her pout had worked and she couldn't wait to tell Harry and Ron once she got back. "Uh sure, just let me finish my toast and I'll give you the grand tour."

She waited anxiously while Sirius finished his breakfast, praying that he would hurry up and finish before anyone else showed up. But fate was most certainly not on her side. Not two minutes later Lily, along with James and Peter took their seats. Hermione's face went a violent shade of red and she locked eyes with the knot in the wood of the table. She didn't look up to see James' reaction but she didn't have to. Apparently his face had a similar reaction for not three seconds later Lily was shouting at him. "Potter, what have you done now!"

"N-nothing," he stuttered.

"Then why do you look so guilty?"

"I-I-I don't know."

"Remus, what did he do?"

"I have no idea."

"Sirius?"

"Sorry."

"And what about you Peter? You know anything?"

He didn't answer so Hermione assumed that he had shook his head. It was then that Lily turned to her and asked the same thing. "Hermione, what did James do?"

"Absolutely nothing." She answered quickly, looking up for the first time and flashing Lily a smile. That seemed to quell Lily's curiosity for the time being and so she sat back and began to get some breakfast.

The rest of the meal was awkward. Every so often Lily would glance between the slightly red James and Hermione who was still busy studying the table. Each attempt at conversation failed miserably for each person was busy trying to figure out what exactly James had done. After an eternity of silence, Sirius informed Hermione that it was time to go to Potions.

It was the first time since Hermione's first year that she was excited about going to Potions class. She stood up and said a quick goodbye before following Sirius out of the Great Hall. Once more she reminded herself to stay a step or two behind so that she would not unknowingly lead the way.

They had only taken one or two steps out of the Great Hall before Sirius asked the inevitable. "So what exactly did James do to you?"

She considered denying that James had done something but she knew that Sirius would keep pressing on until he got his answer. So she told him.

"Well," she began unsure of how to say this, "I didn't know that the bathroom was shared and so I went in there this morning to change and when I noticed James in there, it was too late."

A blush crept back onto her cheeks and deepened when Sirius began to laugh. "Well that certainly explains why he didn't look you in the eye. But hey, look on the bright side, now I'm sure you guilt him into doing anything you wanted."

Hermione laughed halfheartedly. It was still strange for her to be talking to Sirius after so long. This whole thing felt like one long dream and any moment now she was going to wake up on top of a pile of homework papers in her own room. The walk was silent. She still wasn't sure what exactly she should, or could, say to him and so remained silent until he decided to talk to her.

"So how do you like Hogwarts so far?" He asked as they entered the dungeons and neared the classroom.

"It's nice. A lot nicer than my old school, a lot bigger too."

"I bet you miss your friends."

"I do," she answered honestly, "but I'll be seeing them soon I hope."

There conversation ended when they walked into the classroom. It was much brighter than she remembered it but that might have been due to the fact that Snape was no longer the professor. They weren't the first students in so there weren't too many seats to choose from. After letting her in Sirius took a seat at a table in the center of the room, the farthest one back. She sat next to him a moment later and laid her pack on top of the desk. It was killing her back, so full of books that she was surprised the strap hadn't ripped.

The loud thunk on the desk caused everyone present to turn around and try to identify the source of the noise and once everyone saw Hermione's pack, they turned around and continued on with their conversations.

"Merlin, what all do you have in there?" Sirius asked before sliding the pack over to him.

Without properly asking he opened her pack and started to look through it before she had a chance to protest. With each new book he found, his eyes grew wider until looked about to pop out of his head. "Is there a reason you're carrying around every book you own?"

"It's not every book," she said as she snatched her pack back, "I was planning on going to the library to study after classes, that's all."

"You know you don't have to actually take books to the library, right? See the library is this place where they have shelves and shelves of books free for the taking."

She laughed unconvincingly and before she could explain herself, the last of the students trickled in and the professor wobbled into the classroom. Hermione looked around to see if there was anyone else she recognized and her heart dropped into her stomach when she saw Snape sitting two tables up from her. His greasy mop of black hair was impossible to miss and she let out a pitiful sigh. It was going to be a long year.

The other two students that had sat down at the table didn't look familiar, though they sure knew Sirius. Despite the fact that the professor was now in the room, they carried on a whispered conversation. They were two boys and both Ravenclaws by the looks of them. One was dark skinned with short black hair and high cheekbones while the other was tan with long blond hair that tickled his shoulders. Their presence made Hermione uneasy and so she turned her attention from them and to her Professor.

"Good Morning class and welcome to Advanced Potions! I, of course, am Professor Slughorn, and I would like to start todays class with a little quiz."

If Professor Slughorn had to be described in one word, Hermione would have said corpulent. His immense stomach stuck out well past his feet and she wondered how long it had been since he had seen them. His hair was thinning and he had attempted a comb over. The candles in the room shined off of his scalp and illuminated the mustache under his nose. It looked rather out of place, especially when paired with the extravagant clothes he wore. Like her, he looked as though he came from another time. His rich and dulling clothes looked to be at least fifty years old.

He began asking questions, describing color and texture and naming an ingredient or two, and expected them to name the potion. It wasn't heard and Hermione answered the first three without hesitation. But then his questions grew harder and it took her longer to come up with the answer. By that time Snape had his hand raised and had answered. Once or twice another student would answer but before long Snape and Hermione found themselves engaged in a battle of smarts. Professor Slughorn kept going, making his questions harder and harder until he went past everything a normal seventh year should know, and onto even more advanced potions.

After half an hour of quizzing, Professor Slughorn called a tie and awarded Hermione and Snape twenty points for each of their houses. Sirius smiled at her and patted her on the back while Snape turned around and sneered at her. She avoided his eyes and instead looked at the table.

The rest of the class was spent going over the Professors expectations and the class schedule for the rest of the term. It was boring, yes, and Hermione tuned him out within the first five minutes. Normally she would be hanging on every word that the Professor said but her mind was otherwise occupied.

It took forever for class to be dismissed and she followed Sirius out of the classroom. He was still speaking to the boys from their table and so she followed him silently until he said goodbye and they began walking towards Herbology. Only two more classes left until she could retire to the library and begin searching for a way back home.


	5. Chapter 5

**Good lord. I had this whole A/N typed up and it was all full of important crap. But it's 2:30 in the morning and i'm about to pass out so I'll just put it in the next update. Goodnight, thank you everyone who reviewed, and please enjoy this new chapter. Oh, and review too :)**

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Herbology and Ancient Runes were a breeze. Hermione had already been through the first week or so of school with the exact same teachers so she really didn't have to listen too hard. She was busy thinking about what other books she needed for her research. Time travel had never been a big study topic for her so she was going into this quite blindly. Dumbledore had been no help what so ever. All he did was offer to pay for the books and supplies that she might eventually need.

Her last class of the day was dismissed and she almost ran towards the library. No one that she had met so far was in Ancient Runes so there were no excuses or questions about where she was going. But her stomach stopped her just as she was coming up to the doorway. It was past time for lunch and she was starving. Despite her protesting stomach, Hermione walked into the library and took a table near the back. She unloaded all of the books she had been packing and took out some quills, ink, and parchment. There was a lot of work for her to do, lots of reading and note taking, her stomach would just have to wait.

James, Sirius, Remus and Peter sat in the Head Common Room lounging around after their classes. James and Sirius were talking about the quidditch tryouts that were coming up in a few weeks, Peter was listening in, and Remus was busy with homework. There was a pile of chocolate laid on top of the table they were circling, most of it Remus, and a smaller pile of wrappers lying next to it.

As Sirius took a piece and unwrapped it, flinging the torn wrapper onto the growing pile, the conversation turned from quidditch to the new girl, Hermione.

"You think she's any good on a broom?" James wondered aloud as he took another piece for himself.

"Nope, she's too bookish for that." Answered Sirius.

"Intelligent people can play sports too you know," countered Remus as he looked up from his notes.

Sirius fought the urge to roll his eyes as he answered, "Snape sure can't, though the bastard sure tries. Anyway, I don't think she has the coordination."

"How do you know?" Asked James.

"I watched her this morning." And before James or Peter could make any leering comments he added, "and not in that way, though she does have a decent arse. But what I was saying is, I don't think she's coordinated enough. She must have tripped twelve times on the way to Herbology, I had to catch her once so that she didn't fall flat on her face!"

Peter laughed, actually it sounded more like a snivel than anything else, and so did James. "Do you think she's going to be hanging around Lily much?"

"They're living together," Remus answered as he stared at his paper. "And you know Lily wont let Hermione out of her sight until she knows that Hermione can stand on her own two feet."

This caused James to groan and shoot a hard look at Sirius. "This means no flirting Sirius. If Hermione starts to hate you then it's all over for me. I won't be able to get within ten feet of Evans."

Sirius raised his hands in a gesture of defeat. "I had no intention, honest. I was just trying to be nice this time. Yeah she's not a total troll but I'm not desperate enough to pursue her."

"You'd probably get lost in that bush of hair if you tried to get close," laughed Peter who spoke up for the first time that afternoon.

All of the boys except for Remus laughed and continued to joke around about Hermione while he tried to focus on his studying. He wanted to tell them to stop talking about her that way but he couldn't pluck up the courage. Even after all of these years he was afraid that one wrong move and they would go away. Perhaps if they kept on like this he would say something. After all he knew what she was going through, sort of. It was always hard starting in a new place, especially when you're coming in so late and he had a growing soft spot for her. He was going to do his best to be nice to her, and encourage the other guys to be nice to her as well.

But for now he decided that perhaps a change in topic was best. So he asked, "Why do you think Headmaster Dumbledore let her in?"

"Maybe she's a genius." Answered Sirius unenthusiastically. He was lying on the couch, staring at the ceiling.

James rolled his eyes. "Just because she reads doesn't mean she's smart. But whatever reason the Headmaster had, it must have been good. She's the first transfer to ever come to Hogwarts I think."

Remus nodded his head. "My parents asked if they could wait a year or two to think about whether or not to bring me here, but Dumbledore said that if I didn't come in then I would never be admitted. Said there was a strict no transfer policy."

"Maybe she's his daughter or something," said Peter putting in his two cents.

Sirius threw a pillow in Peter's face for his stupidity before answering, "Then she'd be Hermione Dumbledore you wanker."

The pillow had been thrown with such force that Peter had ended up on with his back on the floor. He tossed the pillow aside and sat back up before asking the stupidest question of the day. "Dumbledore's not his first name?"

This time Sirius threw a cushion.

Hermione had spent the better part of the day in the back corner of the library, reading the books and taking notes. About ten times she had started to pack up so that she could appease her dying stomach but then she would spot something that looked remotely like a solution and her search would continue. Now the sun was way past set and she was no closer to figuring out a way back home. All she had accomplished was to figure out which books didn't help.

Apparently the advances they had made in the ways of time travel had happened in the next twenty years. There weren't even thinking about _thinking_ about time-turners yet!

In one book, four people who claimed to have time traveled had been interviewed. Three had ended up in St. Mungo's while the other had been thrown into Azkaban for using the killing curse five months ago. He had claimed that there was a book with a spell in it that allowed any proper wizard to travel through time. There was no book name mentioned and so her hope had quickly turned to dismay.

This time around there was no word or phrase to bring her back to her reading when her stomach began protesting once more. She gathered up her things and began walking towards the Great Hall. Hopefully it was still open and available, if not she would have to journey all the way down to the kitchens and try to get something there.

There were hardly a dozen students left in there when she walked in a took the seat that she usually sat in. Surprisingly there was a decent amount of food left and it all seemed fresh. She poured a glass of pumpkin juice and surveyed the others in there. There was no view of the Hufflepuff table from where she sat but that didn't matter, there was only one small looking girl sitting near the end with her nose buried in a book. Hardly anyone worth spying on. Two other Gryffindors were at the table but they looked like they were at least third years. Six people graced the Ravenclaw table, including the two boys that Sirius had talked to in Potions. They must have seen her looking because they both waved and the dark haired boy gave her a lopsided grin before going back to the conversation. And then there were three at the Slytherin table. One girl who she recognized from Ancient Runes, and two boys, one she recognized from Potions.

Severus Snape.

He was the one person that she wanted to avoid the most. At least in her time Remus and Sirius seemed to like her, but Snape despised her. Meeting him in this time was almost as bad as meeting Lucius Malfoy who she hoped beyond hope to never lay eyes on.

Perhaps it was lucky then that she meet the Marauders. If she stuck around them then she would never have to come in contact with Snape and her problem would be solved. But of course that would create the other problem of Sirius and especially Remus remembering her. Even though she knew that this set of events had already run its course by the time she was born it did nothing to allay her fears and concerns.

Luckily Snape didn't notice her stare as she wandered off in thought and she turned her focus to the other boy sitting at the table. He looked somewhat familiar and it took all of two minutes for her to realize who it was. It was MacNair! The cruel bastard who had tried to kill Buckbeak in her third year. Now his appearance came as quite a shock. She had no idea that so many Death Eaters, or really future Death Eaters had attended Hogwarts with Harry's parents.

She forced herself to look away before she recognized the girl, just in case she turned out to be some other Death Eater that she knew. Once again she was thankful that she hadn't chosen to stay in the Slytherin Dorms. She wasn't sure whether she would have been able to stand their company day after day without putting something in their drink.

Her face felt flushed and she had the sudden urge to get up and run out of the Hall but her traitorous stomach demanded otherwise. There would be no peace until she satisfied its hunger and so along with refilling her pumpkin juice, she placed a few pieces of chicken and a good helping of mashed potatoes on her plate and ate her meal in silence.

She ate in a hurry, not really knowing why. She supposed the presence of her future potions Master had something to do with it. Either way she was up and out of the Great Hall within twenty minutes. But apparently she wasn't leaving alone. Sharp footsteps echoed behind her and she kept her quick pace.

A hand on her shoulder stopped her and she turned around to see who had kept her back. She recognized it as the brunette boy from her potions class, the same one who had been in the Great Hall moments earlier. She smiled when she saw him, as was polite, and he introduced himself. "Hi, I'm Benjy, Benjy Fenwick. I noticed you from Potions this morning and I thought I should introduce myself."

He stuck out his hand and she shook it. "I'm Hermione Granger."

"I know, Sirius told Caradoc and me 'bout you this morning."

"Oh, did he?" She responded blushing. There really was no reason for her to be blushing but she was anyway. "Well it was very nice to meet you Benjy but I have to be off, lots of studying to do."

Benjy laughed and nodded his head. "I know how that is. I'll see you around then."

She said goodbye before turning around and heading quickly back to the Head Girl's room. The back of her neck was hot from where she thought he was looking at her and for some reason her heart was beating almost out of her chest. Merlin, had he been flirting with her? With the exception of Krum no boy had ever tried flirting with her. Yeah there had been that little thing with Ron in sixth year but he was in it less for the flirting and more for the snogging and homework help.

So maybe because of her lack of experience in this area she was mistaking his niceness and general want to introduce himself to the new girl as flirting. Or maybe he really was flirting and she was just to thick to notice. Either way it didn't matter. Under no circumstances was she to enter into a relationship with anyone from this time. It would be totally bonkers! In reality everyone here was at least twenty years older than her, though at the present time they were all the same age, but that didn't matter. Once she got back home everything would be set to rights and no one in their right mind would hold onto a relationship for twenty years while she went time traveling.

Besides it could interfere in her studying. But his name, Benjy, Benjy Fenwick, sounded horribly familiar. How? She was sure that there was no adult she had known with that name and in her time that's what he would be, an adult.

No matter. Who he was in her time wasn't important right now. She was nearing the Head Girl's room and there was loads of work to be done.

When she walked into the common room everyone was sitting around the fire, Lily included. She noticed Hermione walk in and called her over. She walked over and took a seat in the only empty chair in the room right next to Lily.

"So how was your first day?" Lily asked brightly.

"It was fine."

"Find your classes alright?"

Hermione nodded. "Yeah, I think I'm starting to get the hang of this place."

"And your professors were alright?"

"Yeah, they were nice."

Sirius, who was currently engaged in a game of exploding snap with Remus, had been listening and decided to put in his two cents. "Specially Slughorn, I wouldn't be surprised if he was asking you to teach by the end of term."

"Really?" Lily asked excitedly. "That's wonderful! Getting on the good side of the professors is the first step in getting a decent job. Everywhere you apply you're gonna have to hand in recommendation and if you have one from Professor Slughon." Lily made a whistling noise and Hermione laughed.

"Sirius is just exaggerating."

"You won us twenty points just from answering questions. I don't think I'm exaggerating."

"He gave the same to that one boy, Severus I think."

Apparently just the mention of his name was enough to bring the temperature of the room down twenty degrees. Sirius' face grew harder and Peter began to look nervously between James and Sirius. Was there ever a time when he didn't look like he was about to wet himself?

Thankfully Remus broke the growing tension by explaining what a big deal twenty points was, and said that he thought that she may be the key to winning the House Cup this year. And apparently the mention of a cup perked James up because not two seconds later he asked, "So you any good on a broom?"

The question caused Hermione to laugh as she remembered the first few times she had attempted. "Truthfully, I'm surprised I haven't fallen off one yet. Sorry."

"Told you," she heard Sirius whisper.

Now that the conversation had all but disappeared, Hermione reached for her pack and grabbed her ancient runes book. Time travel research had ended for the day and now it was time for her to study for her classes.

Lily and James left soon for a meeting with the Prefects. Sirius and Peter left half an hour after them but Remus stayed. He said that with everyone gone, this would be the best place to study.

"My roommates can get loud and the library closes soon, I hope you don't mind," was what he said.

"It's fine, I don't mind."

So she sat in her chair reading her text while Remus spread himself out on the couch with his transfiguration book. It was quiet, the only sounds coming from the crackling fireplace and their faint breathing.

An hour and a half later, James and Lily came back and went straight up to their rooms. Who could blame them, though? It was getting late and the day had been long. Hermione's eyes fought to stay open as she turned the next page. Remus seemed about to drift off as well so Hermione closed her book and cleared her throat, hoping that the combined noise would make him look up.

And it did.

"I think we both should be heading off to bed. You look like you're about to pass out over there."

He faintly smiled and said thanks while he began to pack up his stuff. Hermione just put her book in her bag and stood up. It was then that she noticed how stiff her muscles had become from sitting down so long and so she raised her arms above her head and bent her back backwards to stretch. Her back popped about twelve times, and popped five times more when she bent down to touch her toes.

When she righted herself she looked over to see Remus staring at her with wide eyes.

"Sorry," she blushed, "my back cracks when I sit like that for too long."

He continued to stare until some invisible hand smacked some life into him. He began to blush as well and got up to go. "I've never heard a back crack like that, it was slightly disgusting."

She grabbed her pack and started to take a few steps towards her room. "Can't help it."

Remus half smiled and walked towards the door. "Goodnight."

"Goodnight," she answered as she watched him walk out the door before walking up to her own room.

Lily was already fast asleep when she came up and so Hermione did her best to not make noise. There was one candle lit near her bed and so she did her best to get ready in candle light. A trip to the bathroom was out of the question, she was too afraid of meeting James in there, and so she said a cleaning charm for her teeth and quickly changed into her pajamas.

Exhaustion hit her as she sat in her bed and she thought that perhaps tomorrow she would wake up to see Harry and Ron before her eyes closed and she went to sleep.


	6. Chapter 6

_Hey guys, look at this! I updated in exactly one month! Look at me go. I would've had this up sooner but some things happened. I'll let you know more in the A/N's at the bottom. Beware, they might be a bit lengthy (but they're pretty important!) So go on now, read!_

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The first week of class had gone by like a breeze, just like Hermione had thought it would. It seemed as though very few classes had changed in twenty years. Even Defense Against the Dark Arts class, with its ever changing professors, had followed the same basic lesson plan.

This, of course, had left Hermione loads of time to try and solve the getting home puzzle. Every day after classes were over, she would head to the library and take a seat near the back where she would spend hours pouring over her books and searching for anything that could help her get home.

Four days of searching and she had yet to find even one more mention of the book that supposedly contained the secrets to time travel. It was frustrating. Though she doubted whatever book that man had been talking about contained the secret of time travel, right now it was her only hope.

She ate dinner alone most evenings. By the time she got out of the library most nights there was hardly anyone left. However Severus always seemed to be there. As always she avoided eye contact with him and everyone else at the Slytherin table and ate her supper quickly and quietly.

And now Hermione sat in the common room, cracking open her books for the first time that day. Lily and the boys were there too. It was odd really. All Lily ever seemed to talk about was how annoying they all were and how much she hated James and yet she seemed to spend most of her time with them. Hermione hadn't even met the girls that Lily was supposedly best friends with and the only other girls she came in contact with were the ones in class.

Perhaps Lily really didn't hate James as much as she thought.

Right now they were having a tiff about the frequency of meetings with the prefects. James thought that meeting should be longer and more often while Lily said that they were fine just as they were. They were about to come to blows when Hermione reminded them that they had one to go to in ten minutes.

Still arguing, Lily and James left the room. Hermione shook her head and concentrated on her studying while the other three did whatever. This was the first time Remus had been in the common room since the full moon two days before. He looked haggard and exhausted. There were more than a few visible cuts and bruises but she had pretended not to notice.

He was currently involved in a game of chess with Sirius and he was losing badly. There was no way he was going to win but he still kept playing.

The sound of pieces attacking each other and the squeals coming from Peter were a bit to distracting for Hermione so hardly half an hour after James and Lily left, she closed her book and walked up to her room. She said no goodbye's or good night's and she received none. She had only known the other's for a week, and Remus even less, so she was hardly on friendly terms.

Making friends with them was harder than she thought it was going to be. Lily had been quick to befriend but the boys seemed to not care for her. They had their group all figured out it seemed and they needed no additions. Sirius spoke to her in potions class but he had little to say to her outside of it. She and Remus only exchanged polite conversation and she avoided speaking to Peter whenever she could. James only spoke to her to find out about Lily.

But the lack of conversation could have been due to the fact that she spent most of her time in the library away from all of them. Maybe if she spent less time in there and more time with them she would be more readily accepted. But did she really want to be accepted by them? To become their friend?

Her original plan was to avoid the Marauders at all costs, to do whatever she could to keep from implanting herself in their memory. Perhaps this was the key. There was no way to avoid Lily, but if she became just some girl they went to school with then maybe they wouldn't remember her in twenty years.

Besides she was starting to make friends of her own outside of the Marauders. She was making safe friends with people she knew would eventually die before she was even born. It was morbid and horribly depressing but it was the only safe option she had.

Benjy and Caradoc, the two Ravenclaw boys that sat at her table in Potions, had started to talk to her outside of classes and meals. They had even invited her to study with them on the weekends. It wasn't until she realized that both would die within the next ten years that she agreed.

Future Order members, Caradoc would eventually vanish, never to be seen again, while poor Benjy would literally be blasted into bits. They would both die fighting a war that Hermione and her friends currently found themselves fighting.

She had never really given them a second thought before. All they had been to here were men who had died fighting the Dark Lord and nothing more. But now they were real to her. They were real men with personalities and lives of their own. Like her friends back in her time, they were just two boys caught up in a battle much bigger than themselves and if such awful things could happen to them, she wondered what would become of her and her friends once this was all over.

Hermione had been so deep in her studying that she didn't even notice when Lily came in. And so when Lily said hello, Hermione almost jumped out of her skin with fright.

"I didn't even hear you come in, you scared me half to death." Hermione said as she clutched her chest, just above her wildly beating heart.

"I noticed." Lily answered with a smile, "You get too caught up in studying, you know. It's like once you open the book the rest of the world sort of fades away. And there's nothing wrong with that, don't think I'm trying to offend, but you just do it so much."

"I like to keep up with my grades." Hermione replied defensively.

"Yes, yes, but you can't study all of the time. That's how people go mad. And that is exactly why you and I are going to spend tomorrow afternoon at the quidditch pitch watching the tryouts with Sirius, Remus, and Peter."

"But I can't, I have to-"

"Study, right?" Lily finished for her as she slid into her bed and began to settle down. "Well too bad. You've spent all week studying, surely you can take a break for just a few hours."

"But the other's don't like me." She replied pathetically. It was true, the other's didn't like her and so the thought of spending the afternoon with them was daunting.

"It's not that they don't like you, it's that they don't know you. I'm sure it's nothing that an afternoons conversation couldn't cure. Now I'll have no more discussion about this. You're going with me tomorrow and that's final."

There was nothing Hermione could say. All argument was rendered null and void the second Lily's snoring began to echo across the room. As usual, Hermione's mind began to try and think up ways to get out of the uncomfortable situation, but there was no excuse that she could give that Lily couldn't talk her out of or take offense to. So after almost an hour of trying to find a viable solution, Hermione resigned herself to the fact that she would be stuck with the Marauders for a few hours.

Saturday September 11th, 1976

"Remind me why we are going again?" Hermione asked for the tenth time that morning.

She honestly couldn't think of one good reason why they were going to watch the tryouts for the new team. Sure she had gone to her fair share of tryouts and practices but that was because her two best friends were on the team. Lily had no such connection to the team. In fact, she claimed to loath her one connection!

"Because we're showing support for our house." Lily replied, sounding a bit more irritated than the last time Hermione asked.

They were almost to the pitch and Hermione had been grumbling all the way from Gryffindor tower. It was no wonder that Lily was starting to grow annoyed. Truth be told even Hermione was getting a bit annoyed with herself. She just wasn't satisfied with Lily's answer.

"So I guess you all take this house unity stuff seriously then."

"We do." Lily began with a small smile, "After seven years of it it's hard not to. But then again, most of the students have parents who went here so there's a lot of us who come to Hogwarts already cheering for one house or another. It's mostly just pride in each house though, there aren't any serious house rivalries except for the Gryffindor-Slytherin rivalry. For some reason our house and Slytherin just don't get along and we never have. In fact Slytherins have a hard time getting along with anyone outside of their own house."

"Well that's stupid." said Hermione as Lily led her into the quidditch pitch.

They made their way over to the Gryffindor section and took their seats. Lily said hello to Sirius, Remus, and Peter while Hermione waved in greeting. She said little while Lily engaged herself in a conversation with Remus about their recent Charm's homework so Hermione was left to her own devices.

"Missing your books already?" Sirius asked from behind, startling her.

"No," she answered defensively.

She heard him laugh and turned around to face him. "I'm perfectly capable of going a few hours without my books you know."

He laughed again and smiled at her. "Not from what I've seen. First time since you've arrived that I've seen you without a book."

"I have a lot of catching up to do, that's all."

Nodding he ended the disagreement. "I didn't peg you as a quidditch fan though."

"Why? Because I'm to bookish?"

"Something like that." He answered, smiling again.

"Two of my best friends play quidditch, I'm sort of forced to like it."

"And your boyfriend? Does he play as well?"

She mock glared at him for asking such a question. She was half tempted to say yes but she decided against it. "Don't have one."

Sirius nodded his head and said, "oh yes?" as though he had just uncovered some great secret that she had been trying to hide. Hermione caught his brief glance over to Remus and turned back towards the pitch. No doubt they had a bet going on whether or not she was single. Perhaps Sirius had just won and he was looking towards Remus for conformation.

For a moment she wanted to turn around and slap him smartly across the face for betting on such a personal thing but her own self-consciousness steadied her hand. There was no telling what Lily would think if Hermione did such a thing. And there was no logical way to explain her actions unless she was right about the whole bet thing.

Fortunately in the time she had been talking to Sirius, Lily had ended her conversation with Remus so Hermione was no longer stuck on her own. With her attention now on Hermione, Lily began to point to each person on the pitch and explain who they were.

It was surprising how few girls there were trying out for the team. Only two girls were out there competing for a position with around twenty boys. She asked Lily if that was normal and said that actually it was strange. Normally there wouldn't be any women out on the pitch. Women, it seemed, had just started playing quidditch at Hogwarts and there had only been a handful of women on the teams so far. Somewhat fascinated, Hermione listened to all that Lily said on the subject.

By the time Lily was finished with the history of quidditch at Hogwarts, tryouts were half over. Everyone in the pitch was sweating a bit and Hermione could feel her hear grow bushier and bushier. She even thought about warning poor Sirius who sat behind her that his vision might be impaired in a few moments.

She asked if perhaps Lily was ready to go back to the dorms, or at least back into the castle, but Lily just called her a spoil sport and insisted that she stay. Voicing her concerns about choking anyone within a ten foot radius with her ever growing bush of hair, Sirius suggested that Remus once again escort her around the castle.

"Go on Remus," he said, "why don't you escort our new, and single, student back to the castle? Might as well take Peter with you, he's looking a bit peaked."

And so Hermione, Remus, and Peter began making their way towards the castle. An uncomfortable cloud of silence descended over the trio and Hermione prayed for a decent topic of conversation.

"Laying it on a bit thick there, are you?" scolded Lily as she got up and sat next to Sirius.

"I thought I got my point across quite well." He answered smugly.

Lily rolled her eyes and laid back against the bleachers. "You shouldn't push it this early. They hardly speak and he's not even sure if he likes her."

"Oh he likes her alright. And she's just his type. Besides, Remus could use with a proper girlfriend, it might boost his self esteem."

"Yeah, until she finds out about his little monthly problem. What do you think she'll do then?"

"Who say she has to even find out?"

"She's not an idiot!" Lily said as she smacked him lightly on the arm. "He's hardly known her for a few days, he doesn't know anything about her and neither do you or I. She seems nice enough but who knows? Remus isn't about to go sharing his secret with every girl that makes his heart race and Hermione has a right to know who she's dating. So stop pushing. Nothing is going to come of it."

"Well," Sirius began with a huff, "aren't you just the biggest wet blanket."

"Oh stop acting as though I just took away your favorite chew toy."

"Oy, I'm not a dog." Sirius answered with a bit of hurt in his voice.

"Then stop acting like one." Lily teased.

For the rest of the tryouts their conversation stayed short and polite. There was no more talk about Remus' faint attraction to Hermione or a possible relationship that might develop for Lily believed that her point had not only been proven, but had been understood, while Sirius distracted himself with figuring ways to get them together.

The walk back to the castle was awkward and Hermione thanked god when she spotted the portrait that hid the Head Girl's dorms. Peter had already headed up to Gryffindor tower so Hermione was left walking with Remus. It wasn't an unhappy change, after all she wasn't very fond of the little rat, but at least then Remus had someone to speak to. She was a third wheel, not a sole companion.

She was surprised when Remus followed her into the common room and took a seat on the couch in front of the fire. She wondered if he was going to wait for James or if there was something that he might want to speak to her about. Deciding that she'd rather not be rude, she stayed in the common room and settled down in her normal arm chair.

Grabbing the book safely nestled in the cushions, she relaxed and began to read.

"I thought Lily had you on a strict no book policy today."

Hermione put her book down and blushed a bit. "I was hoping she hadn't told you."

"Well if you put the book down now then I won't tell anyone." Remus smiled back.

"Alright," she conceded, " I guess I just can't help myself. I tend to feel a bit exposed without a book in my hand."

"Perhaps if you put them down more often, you wouldn't feel so exposed."

"Perhaps," Hermione agreed, "but books have been my whole life almost. I can't just give them up now."

"Do you mind if I suggest something?"

Hermione shook her head, curious.

"How about you and I study together? That way Lily wouldn't mind you spending so much time buried in books."

She needed no time to consider. A yes was out of her mouth before she even knew what she was saying. But then again it was no surprise. The Remus she knew from her time was quite smart and she suspected that his younger self was just as intelligent. Studying with him would be quite an improvement from Harry and Ron as well.

"Good, now how about a game of chess to pass the time?" He asked as he stood up an moved towards the corner where the chess board was kept.

"I don't know how to play," she admitted.

"I'll just have to teach you then. Now come on, it's not that hard. I'm sure you'll be beating me in no time."

But he wasn't right. They played for two hours straight and Remus had slaughtered her every time. Granted she was just learning but it was obviously not her game. She thought that after watching Ron and Harry play so many times she would have a fighting chance but luck was not on her side.

When Lily and James came back in, Hermione had just lost her fourth game and was too busy glaring at Remus to notice their entwined hands. In no time the board was set up for yet another game only this time Remus had a worthy opponent in James. Hermione had retired to her normal chair, wondering which sort of books she should try to get from the library on the subject of chess. She was now determined to beat him at the soonest possible time.

Almost as though she had been reading Hermione's mind, Lily began to talk just a few moments after Hermione began thinking.

"So was this afternoon as bad as you thought it was going to be?"

"Well I did lose four games of chess," Hermione teased, "but no, it wasn't that bad."

"See, I told you the boys would like you."Lily answered smugly.

"Just Remus and Sirius. By the way, where is Sirius?"

"Oh he went up to his dorm, said he needed to talk to Peter about something."

"Well, how did he know that Peter wasn't here?" Hermoine asked confused.

"I don't know," Lily said just as unsure, "maybe he's physic. Anyway, how about we get some dinner? I'm starving!"

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_Hello again! I'm sorry that this took so long to get out. See the thing is I just moved back home so my 24 hour access to the uber fast campus internet was cut off. I actually finished this chapter, oh, a week ago and I tried to update so I got up at two in the morning to make sure I wasn't yelled at for tying up the phone line, connected my computer, and signed onto AOL. So of course it was moving slower than molassess on a cold day and it took like twenty minutes for me to get to where I could upload the chapter. And then guess what? AOL froze and I fought with my computer to fix it and all that jazz, and I ended up just having to sign off. Well then they tried to install some crap onto my computer so before it finished, I cancelled it. Well that turned out to be a bad idea because every time I tried to sign on after that, AOL said that I had to restart my computer so that it could install and fix stuff. So seven days and about 1000 restarts later, here I am. Long story short, AOL never worked and I found out a way to hook up my computer to the port thingy with the chord I used for internet at school. Yeah, long and not so fun process there. Anyway, here's the chapter and I hope you like it. Updates should hopefully be coming quicker. But who knows? I was going to put some stuff in here about the story, as in what I messed up that I just am not going to change, but I think this A/N is long enough. Dangit! Maybe next time? Anyway, I hope you liked the chapter and as always, please review!_


	7. Chapter 7

_So for today, A/N's will be at the top. You lot best be glad that I misplaced my yarn needles or this chapter would have probably taken another month or so to get out. See I'm trying to get all knitted up for OOTP and so I'm trying to make myself some nice fingerless gloves but right as I was ready to start sewing them up the sides, my yarn needle decides to go missing. Now never fear, I will have one by sunday even if it means I'll have to go all the way up to walmart to get it. Sorry the chapter is so short, came out to about six pages though. Boy it took a lot to get through this chapter. See I started yesterday afternoon and since then I've had three hours of sleep, about twelve cups of coffee (I'm now addicted thanks to uni), spent six hours playing Grand Theft Auto, watched a few episodes of Torchwood (spin off of Doctor Who) and ordered myself a nice little shirt for OOTP. Notice how I didn't put anything in here about eating? Yeah, that's because each time I was about to go fix something, I'd tell myself "No, no food till you finish the chapter." Sort of like how on Friends, Ross won't let himself eat thanksgiving dinner until he writes down all fifty states from memory. Yeah, great episode. Anyway sorry about the rambiling but it's after midnight and I'm food deprived (though I"m about to go pounce on the fridge and make myself a nice little wrap) and I'm pretty sleepy so I tend to ramble. But I'm sure you don't mind. In fact, I think one reviewer said that they liked my ramble's, thought they were amusing. So there :) Anyway, since I never seem to be able to put in what I want to in these A/N's (even though I could if I _really_ wanted to) I was wondering if perhaps you lot would like it if I created a livejournal so that I could keep you updated on my updating schedule and include information about the story that I can't put in chapters. Let me know. And sorry for making the A/N's this chapter almost longer than the chapter itself. Anywho, hope you enjoy the chapter and sorry for the abrupt ending, I just couldn't go on! Well, read and please review!_

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"I thought I told you, no books today!" Lily scolded as Hermione began to walk towards the library.

"I just want to check a few out, I promise I wont read any today." She begged.

Rolling her eyes, Lily gave in and she followed Hermione around as she looked for the right section. Hermione hadn't been over to this side of the library very much as her interests had rarely involved wizarding games. She got enough of that sort of talk around Harry and Ron.

Finding a proper book on the finer points of chess thankfully didn't take too long. Lily was obviously anxious to go somewhere and Hermione wasn't too keen on holding her back.

Once they had left, Lily asked why she had checked out a book on chess.

"Remus taught me how to play this afternoon but he slaughtered me every time. I can't have that now, can I?" She explained.

"See," Lily answered with a self satisfied smile on her face, "I told you that all you needed was an afternoon away from your books. They're warming up to you already!"

This time it was Hermione's turn to roll her eyes, even though it couldn't mask the smile that was starting to form on her face. "Just because he taught me how to play chess doesn't mean anything. He had no other options, I was the only other person in the room."

"But you talked to Sirius too."

"No, Sirius tried to insult me while I responded." She answered with a curtness in her voice. "You know I think they had a bet going about whether or not I had a boyfriend. And judging by the satisfied smile on Sirius' face when I said no, I think he won."

Mentally cursing Sirius, Lily tried to convince Hermione otherwise. "I doubt they had a bet going. James knows that if I even hear that something like that crossed one of their minds, he'd lose the ability to have children."

"But there isn't any other explanation."

Lily didn't respond and let the argument die. Hermione was right, there was no other explanation that she would be able to think of but Lily knew better. Sirius had been asking to find out for Remus but that was not for Hermione's ears. She was having a hard enough time fitting in as it was and she didn't need the added complication that a possible attraction could bring.

"I have to go, I'll meet you in the common room later."

"Where are you going?" Lily asked with a small glare, certain that Hermione was going to run off and secretly go read a book or something.

Hermione laughed at the look Lily gave her. "Benjy and Caradoc, those two Ravenclaw boys I told you about, wanted me to study with them after dinner by the lake. I have to go run over and tell them I can't."

For a moment Lily considered revoking her no book policy but decided against it. But she was glad that Hermione had made a couple of friends and male friends none the less. Perhaps she would fall for one of them and so deter Sirius from trying to get her together with Remus.

"Alright, but give me your book. I'll take it back to the room for you."

"Fine," Hermione said pathetically as she handed over the book.

She said goodbye to Lily and started walking towards the Entrance Hall. She hoped that Benjy and Caradoc would understand. After all they had classes with Lily as well.

It really was turning out to be a beautiful night. The sun was just about to finish setting and already there was a healthy sprinkle of stars in the sky. When Caradoc had suggested studying outside at this time of night, Hermione had looked at him like he was crazy. If it was dark, how would they be able to study?

Caradoc had told her that she would just have to wait and see. Hermione was disappointed that she wouldn't be able to stay and study with them. They were in Ravenclaw so they had to be smart, but they were also very kind and quite handsome. But they had said that they were also going to be studying tomorrow, so maybe there was hope for her yet.

She made it to the lake just as the sun died and found Benjy and Caradoc lying next to a pile of books looking up at the stars. Hermione cleared her throat as she approached and the two boys quickly sat up.

"So you did show up," Benjy said in a cheery voice. "Caradoc here thought you wern't going to show. Said you'd get too wrapped up in your own studying to remember about us. Hand it over mate."

With a groan Caradoc handed Benjy a few chocolate frog cards or at least what looked to be a few chocolate frog cards.

Hermione laughed. "I was actually banned from my books today by Lily. She think I study to much."

"And she's right," Caradoc answered.

"So what does this mean for studying tonight?" Benjy asked.

"I can't open a book," Hermione answered sadly, "so I can't study. But if you're still up for it I can study with you tomorrow."

"Fine with me, what do you think Benjy?"

"Sure," he said with a shurg, "just as long as you don't mind a few of our mates joining us."

"No, not at all," Hermione replied happily.

"Good, now come and sit down before your legs start to protest." Benjy ordered.

"But I can't study so I'll just be a bother." Hermione said confused as she took a seat next to Caradoc.

"Well we're not going to study now. No use now that there's just the two of us."

"Oh, so what are we going to do?"

"Caradoc and I are going to interrogate you. Just standard questions we ask all the new study partners."

"Oh yeah?" Hermione teased, "And how many study partners have you had?"

"Not many," Caradoc laughed, "most don't make it past the interrogation."

"But we'll go easy on you," continued Benjy, "so I wouldn't worry that much."

Hermione laughed and lay back on the grass. All the stars were out by now as well as the moon. She waited for the boys to begin their questioning as she tried to find some constellations.

After Hermione left, Lily made a beeline towards the Gryffindor Common room. It didn't take her too long to get up there, her anger helped speed towards her destination, and the Common Room was almost empty. But just as she expected, there were three boys huddled around the couch by the fire. She spotted the black haired boy that she had been looking for and marched towards the couch.

Taking the book that Hermione had given to her, Lily swung it at the head of one Sirius Black and enjoyed the almost hollow sound it made when it crashed into his head.

"Oy! What was that for?" Sirius asked as he swung around to face a very irate Lily.

"Remus, Peter, I think you should go up to your dorms for a moment." She hissed while glaring hard at Sirius.

"But," Peter began before he was interrupted by Remus.

"I think maybe we should listen to her Peter," he said before grabbing the other boy and hurrying up the stairs.

Lily didn't say a word until she heard the door to the boys dorm close. And then she almost screamed. "You idiot!"

She took another shot at Sirius head which he doged.

"What did I do?" He questioned as he got up off the couch and stepped away from her.

He was too far away to hit so she threw the book at him instead. Unfortunately for him, he was unable to doge the flying book and took a knee buckling hit to the gut.

With the wind knocked out of him, he was unable to say anything as he fell to his knees on the floor.

"She thinks it was all part of some elaborate joke! You remember that conversation you had with Hermione today? Well guess what, it backfired! She thinks that you and Remus had a bet going on whether or not she was single and of course she took it the wrong way! Merlin Sirius, Hermione is new. The last thing she needs is a romantic attachment to complicate things. She needs to make friends, not find someone to snog."

By the time Lily had finished yelling, Sirius had recovered and was now once again standing, holding the book she had thrown at him as a shield against any more attacks.

"I didn't know she would take it the wrong way."

"Obviously," Lily spat.

"What are you doing with a book on chess?" Sirius asked suddenly.

"Excuse me?" Lily answered confused.

"What are you doing with a book on chess?"

"Oh that's Hermione's." Lily replied. "Remus taught her how to play this afternoon and now she's determined to beat him."

"He did?" Sirius said happily, "seems like you were wrong then."

"What do you mean?

"Well if Hermione really did dislike Remus and I then she wouldn't have let him teach her how to play chess and she wouldn't have agreed to study with him."

"She did?"

Sirius nodded his head. "Yes she did. There may be hope for them yet."

"You still need to apologize to her," Lily said as she walked up and grabbed the book back from him.

She then left the common room calmer than when she came in.

It was way past curfew when Hermione and the Ravenclaws got back into the castle. Unfortunately, neither Caradoc nor Benjy were prefects so they had to be extra careful getting back to their respective dorms. Hermione thought of asking if they just wanted to crash in her dorm for the night seeing how it was loads closer than the Ravenclaw dorms but changed her mind when she remembered about Lily. It would just be rude to bring two very noisy boys back to the dorm so late at night.

And then there was no telling what James would say if he woke up to find two boys sleeping in his common room.

But she didn't want the night to end. Spending time with Benjy and Caradoc was like spending time with Harry and Ron though she was a bit more flirtatious with the former. She didn't have to watch what she said around them too much. They were safe.

The so called "interrogation" was nothing more than a simple question are about who she was, where she came from, dotted with the odd question about Potions. In true Ravenclaw fasion, they found a way to study while just laying around.

Thankfully prefects and professors were scarce as they made their way up the stairs and up to Hermione's room. She thanked Caradoc and Benjy for escorting her back and promised to meet them the following night.

When Hermione said the password to get inside, the portrait was not happy. It opened the door slowly while it muttered about one am wake ups not being in the job description. Quietly Hermione crept inside, careful not to make too much noise. She was loathe to wake Lily or James or whoever might be sleeping on the couch up.

She was almost to the stairs when she heard the couch creek and a small slurping sound coming from the common room. Thinking that Sirius was using the common room as his own personal make out spot, Hermione got out her wand and crept over towards the couch. Then thinking the lumos spell, pointed her wand at the couch and let out a cry of, "Gotcha!"

But it wasn't Sirius.

In fact, it was the last two people she had expected.

There they were, Lily and James, sitting next to each other on the couch looking like a pair of deer in headlights. Hermione covered her mouth and tried not to burst out laughing while Lily stood up quickly and started to wipe her mouth off.

"I-I-I thought you were already asleep," she offered as a pathetic excuse.

"I thought _you_ were already asleep," Hermione replied as she started to laugh. "Good thing I didn't invite Benjy and Caradoc in, there wouldn't have been any room for them."

"We-we were just," Lily started before Hermione stopped her.

"Snogging?"

"Well, yes." Lily said with a bit of confidence, "As a matter of fact we were. There's nothing wrong with snogging."

Hermione continued to giggle to herself as she said, "I was wondering when the two of you would get together."

"I think I should be going to bed," James said for the first time as he wandered up to his dorm, looking rather like a dog whose just lost his favorite toy.

Lily said goodnight to James and started to walk towards her own bed before Hermione caught her by the arm. "How long has this been going on?" She asked.

"Since the first Head meeting."

"And you haven't told anyone because?"

"Because we're just snogging," Lily responded defensively, "we're not dating. There's no reason to tell anyone if we're just snogging. I mean he's an annoying, selfish little prat whose been following after me for years. I'm not going to give into him now just because he's a good kisser."

"You'll change your mind eventually," Hermione said more to herself than to Lily. "So I take it you don't want me to say anything?"

"Right."

"Then I'll shut my moth. Now I don't know about you, but I'm exhausted. Night."

But before Hermione could get near the stairs, Lily grabbed her arm. "Not so fast miss. You just spent the evening with two very attractive boys. You're not getting away that easy."

"Nothing happened," Hermione laughed, "we just talked and tried to find constellations, though they did make me promise to meet them again tomorrow night so that we could actually study."

"So you don't fancy either one?"

"I've only been here a week Lily, that's not long enough to fancy anyone."

Lily smiled and rolled her eyes. "If you say so." Then she started heading towards the stairs. "We'll talk about this more in the morning."


	8. Chapter 8

**_Yep, A/N's are on the top today instead of the bottom. Anyway sorry about the long wait for the chappie. It's been a hard month. A very hard month. Lots of stuff going on with my family that basically killed any desire I could have ever had to write. Anyway, it actually took a lot to finish this chapter up and I'm not too happy with it but I knew I had to get something out before the 7th book came out. Now on that note, I just wanted to let you know that just because the 7th book is coming out and my favorite character might just die doesn't mean that I will be giving up on BV or any of my other fan fics. I will continue to write. Now I think that's all I really want to say for now. I hope you enjoy and please review!_**

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Her second week of school was turning out to be one of the best second weeks Hermione had ever had. As promised, she had met up with Benjy and Caradoc by the lake and they had introduced her to the other 7th year Ravenclaws in her potions class. Granted there were only three of them, it was still slightly intimidating. Alice, Frank, and Gwen. She never was told their surnames.

Studying was fine and Hermione quickly earned their respect with her vast potions knowledge, but she was bothered by how familiar Alice and Frank were. She was convinced that there was no one she knew from her time with those names, but still she knew she had seen them somewhere before.

It wasn't until her next potions class that she realized who they were. Professor Slughorn was naming off partners for the end of the year project. Sirius was paired with Caradoc, and Benjy was paired with Frank, Frank Longbottom.

The realization hit like a ton of bricks. Alice and Frank were Neville's parents! It was unbelievable. Now she was not only getting to know the parents that Harry never knew, but she was getting to know poor Neville's parents as well.

Her train of thought ended there, however, because her name was called up next on the list. Her heart dropped when she heard the name Severus Snape called with hers.

Of all the people in the class to be paired with, he had to be the worst. Snape was the one person she wanted to avoid more than anyone else, save for you-know-who, but it looked as though that was no longer an option. She glared at the back of his head while Sirius snickered next to her.

She elbowed him to shut him up while the Professor went on with the pairs. The only consolation about being paired with Snape was the assurance that she would certainly be getting an A on the project. With their combined intelligence there was no other possible outcome. Unless, of course, she murdered him before the due date.

When all the pairs were assigned, Professor Slughorn dismissed the class and instructed everyone to go to the library and spend the rest of the class time discussing a research topic which were to be ready for approval by next class.

The rest of the class filed out of the room, but Hermione sat in her chair and waited for Severus to come over toward her desk. The look on his face was one of pure loathing and she could tell that he was just as unhappy with this arrangement as she was.

"Let's get to the library," she said to him as she grabbed her bag and hopped off the stool.

Jaw set, he hardly even grunted before stalking out the room. Without the billowy robes he looked a lot less threatening though the look in his eyes was still sure to frighten. In silence they walked towards the library, following the other students.

Hermione wondered if perhaps she should say something to break the ice. After all, she couldn't hold this boy accountable for the actions of his future self just yet, could she? And she was going to have to work with him on this project for the next couple months so it would be necessary to talk eventually and knowing his future character, she figured it would be up to her to start the conversation.

But she couldn't think of anything to say on the way up to the library and the only words she spoke to him were directions towards her favorite table before they sat down.

They stared at each other from across the table with arms folded. It must have looked odd to onlookers, a Gryffindor and a Slytherin, willingly sitting at a table together and staring at each other. It wasn't until her eyes started to dry that she finally blinked and uncrossed her arms.

"Any ideas for a topic?"

"No," was his first word to her.

So he speaks, she thought with a small smile. "Well I hope you don't expect me to come up with one all on my own."

He just stared at her. That was answer enough.

"Right then, I'm not sure why you dislike me exactly but you're going to have to get over it. See? Look at me, I'm not to fond of you and I'm talking. Not that hard now, is it?" She said testily.

His glare darkened before he opened his mouth. "Perhaps we should look through some books before discussing a topic."

He got up and walked towards the shelves before she could respond. If his behavior kept up like this, then it would be a long few months. Reluctantly, Hermione got up and walked towards the Potions section of the library. It was quite crowded so Hermione just grabbed two random books and started walking back to the table.

She spied Sirius and Caradoc at a nearby table and waved. They gave her sympathetic looks and Caradoc mouthed, "Sorry," before she sat back down.

The two she had grabbed were all but useless, nothing but biographies of obscure potion masters, Alfred Willinger and Geoff Kruger. Never-the-less, she opened the first and began to thumb through it. When Severus came back fifteen minutes later, she hadn't found a thing that they could use and she was halfway through the book.

Severus had brought back around twenty books and the noise they made as they hit the table top caused the whole library to turn their direction. "Got enough books?" Hermione remarked without looking up.

"At least these are useful." Severus defended as the took the one off the top and opened it.

"As are these, we are allowed to do projects on people."

Severus snorted and it sounded incredibly odd coming from him. So odd in fact, that Hermione was forced to look up. "What's so funny about that?" She asked.

"I doubt Professor Slughorn wants a project on men who ended up in Azkaban. Willinger was a convicted Death Eater, one of the first, who died four months ago. Kruger was sent there after the Ministry caught him using live muggles for potion ingredients." Severus explained.

"Well you certainly seem to know a lot about them." Hermione accused.

"Last time I checked, being well read was not a crime." He growled.

Ignoring his comment, Hermine turned back to the book and kept flipping through it. The words Time Travel caught her eye and she started to read. She was so absorbed in reading that she jumped almost out of her chair when Sirius came up and touched her on the shoulder.

"Merlin Sirius," she panted as she placed her hand over her heart, "you nearly scared me to death. What were you thinking?"

Finding it odd that Sirius would come over while she was working with Severus, she looked over to the other side of the table and found it empty.

"I was about to head out to lunch, thought you might want to come with me."

Lunch? Merlin, she thought, I must have been reading for hours. No wonder Severus left. Hermione nodded her head and grabbed the two books to check out.

"More books? I don't think you have enough room in that bag of yours."

"Which is why I'm glad I'm a witch," she smiled, "I can't tell you how many times the shrinking charm has saved my life."

"You know, instead of lugging all of those around you could just keep some your room. Its not as though you use most of them during the day."

"I like the back problems they cause," Hermione joked before switching the subject, "so did you and Caradoc get anything done?"

"You kidding me? Of course not. We were to busy watching you and Snape and betting who would kill the other first. The looks the two of you were giving each other were deadly." Sirius told her as they took their seats in the Great Hall.

"Well he started it." Hermione defended herself, "I don't understand why he hates me so much."

"Not to be too blunt," Sirius began as he spooned some potatoes onto his plate, "but you're muggleborn. It's rumored that Snape's already a Death Eater so he's sort of obligated to hate you. Not to mention you hang with me and James. That alone is enough to get you on his hitlist."

"Well then , this is certainly going to be a fun term," she replied sarcastically before digging into her food.

"Why's it going to be fun?" Lily asked as she took her seat next to Hermione with James only a few steps behind.

"Hermione's got Snape as a partner for the potions project."

A snicker came from the mouths of James and Peter as they too sat down.

"I'm sure it won't be that bad," Remus assured her as he sat down on her other side.

"Yeah, and I'm sure we could think of something that would keep him in the infirmary for the next few months." James added, only to get elbowed in the ribs by Lily.

"That's Ok James," Hermione laughed, "besides I'd rather do the project with him than without him. He's the smartest person in the class and working with him I'm sure to get good marks."

"I wonder what else you'd be willing to do for a good grade," James answered jokingly

Hermione turned the topic of conversation from her potions assignment to the transfiguration essay that was due that week. When the talk died away, Hermione's eyes moved about the Great Hall. She wasn't looking for, or at, anything in particular, she was just looking. She spotted the back of Snape's head and glared at it. Based on the way they interacted in the library, she could tell that it was going to be a long, hard assignment.

But they would eventually have to become civil if they were going to get any work done. She wondered if Snape had found anything they could use for a topic and she considered suggesting time-travel potions. Too bad there wasn't enough research in the field for a decent topic. It would be nice to have his brain helping her figure out this puzzle. The few bits she had found in Kruger's biography were interesting and, once more, they suggested that a way of time traveling had been found though it offered no information on how that was to be done. But she had deduced that since Kruger was such a potions fanatic that the answer had to be a potion.

The downside was that he only worked with dark potions, ones with ingredients banned by the ministry and that no respectable and moral person would consider using. Now there was no way of knowing if the means of time traveling actually required the use of the Dark Arts, but Hermione had very little hope that it didn't.

It was getting frustrating, finding little bits in books that hinted at some way of time traveling, but not being able to find more than the smallest bits. Hermione thought that perhaps it was time to go visit the headmaster again. The day before she had sent him an owl saying as much, and he had told her to come at eight thirty that night to chat. This time she had the password so there was no reason to schedule in more time to sit and try to figure it out.

She planned on asking him if perhaps he had the resources to find something with more information. Though she doubted he knew anything about it. He would have said something already, wouldn't he?

That night she made her excuses to Remus and said that she'd be back later so that they could study. Holding the letter, and the metions of the solutions to time travel, in her hand Hermione stepped up to the stone gargoyle. With confidence she said, "Sherbet Lemon," and smiled when it allowed her entrance.

Too busy digging through her bag to find her time travel research, Hermione didn't even notice when she arrived at the Headmaster's door until it opened up for her and he ushered her in.

"Thank you sir," she answered still half distracted.

She took her seat in front of his desk and sat her back in her lap as she continued her search. She could hear Dumbledore chuckling near her and she couldn't help but blush.

"Sorry sir, I'm usually much more organized."

Sitting down at his desk, Hermione could feel his smile. "Perhaps, Miss Granger, you could let me in on what you need while you search through your bag."

"Oh, yes, of course," she continued with an even greater blush. Normally she wasn't so absent minded. "Well Sir, it's just that I've found a few brief and extremely vague references to time travel in a number of books from the library. Granted most of them are from the restricted section. But as I was saying, all the mentions are vague and I'm beginning to doubt that even the restricted section has the information that I need."

"And you've come to ask me for better books?" He asked with his normal twinkle.

"Yes sir." Then, finally finding the papers she had been looking for, she let out a triumphant cry and handed them over. "This is a list of books that I think might have the answer, or at least might lead me closer to one."

The slightly reprimanding look he shot her was to be expected. The list had to be over three feet long and she had to admit, two or three of the books on the list had nothing to do with possible time travel, but where books she had been dying to get her hands on.

"I don't expect you to just hand them over to me, Sir," she quickly chimed in, "I'm sure there's something I could do to help pay for them. I just might require your connections to get a few of them."

"Are you suggesting that in addition to your studies and your research, you wish to have a job here at Hogwarts?"

"Some of those books are expensive and I don't want you to simply hand them over. So yes, I want to work."

It was obvious that this Dumbledore had no idea who she was really, because he gazed at her a long while before he nodded his head. It was as though he was trying to figure out how she was going to do all of this and still keep her grades up.

"Professor Slughorn has told me of your aptitude of Potions so I think that is where I will place you. You will be his teaching aide. You will grade papers and exams for the lower years and aide him in making the proper potions for the Hospital. Now I should warn you, this is not a light job. You will have to work hard."

"I understand that Sir." She said with her head held high.

"Good. I'm sure Professor Slughorn's other aide will be quite pleased to hear that he will have helper."

She had been packing up to leave, but Dumbledore's last bit stopped her cold.

"Other aide?" She asked.

"Yes, Mr. Snape has been aiding Professor Slughorn for the last three years."

Hermione's heart dropped for the second time that day and for the briefest moment's she considered begging for a different job but thought better of it. Dumbledore was already doing so much to help her, rejecting this offer would be like spitting on everything he had done so far.

But he must have noticed her lack of enthusiasm. "I see you have already become acquainted with Mr. Snape. A word of advice Miss Granger, I would not dismiss Severus so quickly, you might find him to be quite an asset."

"Yes Sir," she answered politely, though inside she was rolling her eyes.

She finished packing up and was about to head out the door when he stopped her one more time. "I will send you the list of those books you can pick up at Hogsmeade next weekend."

Hermione smiled and thanked him before walking out the door and heading back down the stairs. It was getting late, almost curfew, and so she hurried towards her room. Remus was sitting on the couch when she arrived, his head buried in a book.

The common room was empty except for him and so she let out a great sigh and threw herself down on her end of the couch.

"Meeting not go well?"

Hermione smiled and shook her head. "It did, I'm just exhausted. From now on I'm going to be helping Professor Slughorn with his tedious work to help pay for my schooling."

"You're going to kill yourself," Remus exclaimed, "you already do to much as it is."

Shrugging, Hermione replied, "I'll figure something out. But I hope you don't mind if I go on up to bed without studying."

"Be my guest," Remus half laughed.

Saying goodnight, Hermione left her bag by the couch and shuffled towards her room. Two minutes ago she had been running towards the dorm and now she could hardly pick up her feet. Wave upon wave of exhaustion had enveloped her and she found that she didn't even have the strength to pull down her covers or even take off her shoes.

Lily made a comment or two but Hermione was too tired to listen so she just shook her head and mumbled something that could have been taken as an answer before she fell on top of her bed and remembered no more.


	9. Chapter 9

**_You all should thank Ellyanah for giving me that extra push to get this chapter out almost two weeks sooner than I expected. See what happens when you communicate with the authors? It really does help:) Anyway, yes I have read Deathly Hallows, in fact I finished it just a few hours after it came out, but just because I've read it and some of my reviewrs have read it doesn't mean that everyone has. So if you could please refrain from posting spoilers that would be wonderful. If you do wish to talk about the book then feel free to message me. I know the book changed a lot of things, but I'm still going to be sticking to this story and this plot. Don't worry, I'm not going to abondon BV. Anyway, I hope you enjoy the chapter. Sorry it's a bit shorter than some of the others but I didn't want to keep going and make it too long. Besides, I think this is the first time that I haven't forced a stopping point. It felt good. Anyway, I hope you enjoy and please please PLEASE review. It really does help updates!_**

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"Oi, wake up! It's almost noon." Lily shouted before throwing a pillow at Hermione's head.

Hermione groaned at the rude awakening and turned a bleary eye towards her roommate. "It can't be. I set the alarm for seven."

"I know," Lily answered darkly, "it woke _me_ up. You on the other hand wouldn't budge no matter how hard I tried to beat you."

"Severus is going to murder me," muttered Hermione as she swung her legs over the side and with a heavy head, stood up. "I was supposed to meet him at eight to work on the project."

It was true. When she had gotten back Thursday night from her meeting with Dumbledore, there was an owl waiting in the common room for her with a letter in it's beak. It bit her twice before she was allowed to take the letter. It was just a short note from Severus telling her that they were going to meet at eight am on Saturday to begin work.

Apparently the thought of Severus sitting alone in the library waiting for Hermione was all Lily needed to crack a smile. "Glad to see you find it amusing."

"Course I do. You can't see James Potter as much as I do and not become just a bit sadistic."

Hermione threw Lily's pillow back at her and they started to laugh. Looking in the mirror, Hermione decided that this was the last time she was sleeping in so late. Despite the ample amount of sleep she had gotten, the bags under her eyes had doubled in size and the size of her hair had tripled.

"I suggest you shower before lunch. Wouldn't want you scaring the first years now, would we?"

Hermione rolled her eyes and grabbed her things. Despite all appearances, she enjoyed the ease at which she was able to talk with Lily. Surprisingly they fit along well together even with their different personalities. It was nice, really nice. Back in her own time, the only girl Hermione really had to talk to was Ginny and while they got along, they didn't spend much time together, which was understandable seeing as how they were a year apart.

The Marauders and, unfortunately, Caradoc and Benjy were in the common room when Hermione came out. They took one look at her and started to laugh and without her wand she was unable to do anything but shoot them all a dirty look which only made them laugh harder.

"Oi, you'd think she'd look a bit better after all that beauty sleep," Benjy teased.

"Looks like someone had a late night," Sirius chimed in, nudging Remus slightly.

Remus blushed. "I think she looks fine."

Hermione smiled and had closed the door to the bathroom just before James said, "Sure you do Moony."

"Come on, stop teasing her." Lily said as she walked out of the room, just in time to see Hermione walk into the bathroom. "She's got a lot on her plate."

"Yeah, especially now that she's going to be working for Slughorn." Sirius announced.

"What?" Asked Caradoc.

"She's going to be helping Professor Slughorn to help pay for her schooling." Explained Remus.

"But I thought that's what Snape did." Caradoc answered.

"Maybe he's been replaced," laughed Sirius as he imagined the look on Snape's face when he heard the news.

"She's going to be working _with_ him," said Remus with a reproachful look.

"Well you certainly seem to know a fair share about this," James pointed out with a knowing look at Remus.

"No more than Sirius."

"Actually quite a bit more." Sirius countered.

Catching on, Benjy and Caradoc smiled. "So I take it our little Remus has a crush on the new girl?"

"No he doesn't," snapped Lily before Remus could answer for himself, "James and Sirius are just beings prats."

Sirius and James were prepared for this argument but before their first point had even gotten a chance to be heard, Hermione came back out of the bathroom.

The second she stepped out of the bathroom she knew they had been talking about her. The way the room went quiet the second the door began to creek was a dead give away. And by the looks of things, the conversation must not have been pleasant, at least not to Lily, whose face was still twisted in annoyance though she tried to cover it up with a cool smile.

She smiled at them all and walked back to her room to put her things away. Her wet hair was tied up in a messy bun and she dared not take it out, even to dry it. So instead she grabbed a bit of the gel laying on Lily's table and smoothed it over her visible hair in hopes that it would contain the frizz that would eventually pop out. There was no time to even think about drying her hair anyway. She had to hurry to the library to see if Severus was still there and, if he wasn't, she had a long day of searching for him to look forward to.

After filling her bag with all the necessary study materials, Hermione stepped out into the common room and said a hurried goodbye. The second she stepped out into the hallways she began to run as fast as she could towards the library. Thankfully everyone in her path could sense her urgency and stepped out of her way.

She made it to the library in record time and hurried towards the back. As she expected, Severus was sitting at the back table surrounded by a mountain of books. She was glad that he didn't look up at her when she put her pack down on the table and sat down. The venom would have been deadly and she was sure she would have the look her future professor saved only for Harry.

"You're late." He said in a calm voice that clearly portrayed his fury.

"My alarm didn't go off," she lied.

"Don't let it happen again." He hissed as he pushed a book towards her, still refusing to meet her eyes.

Biting her tongue, Hermione glared at him as she took the book he gave her and opened it up. She recognized the name vaguely from one of the books she had originally looked at for the project. Geoff Kruger, the man that Severus claimed had been sent to Azkaban recently for unlawful potions experiments. Confused, she looked up and was about to ask Severus what he was doing with the book, thinking that they had dismissed this man already, when she noticed the spine of his book. It was a biography of Kruger.

Finding it odd she cleared her throat and Severus raised his eyebrows.

"Why did you give me a book on Kruger?"

"Because I've already picked our topic." He answered cooly.

"Without even asking me?" She replied with a bit of venom.

"I would have consulted you," he began, still reading his book, "but you seemed to care more about your sleep than our grades."

"You still had no right," she continued hotly.

"It's a pity that you don't like the topic," he interrupted, "seeing as how I've already discussed it with Professor Slughorn and he agreed that it was a wonderful idea. He seemed to think that it was good for students to realize that there is a more dangerous side to potions. I don't think he would be too keen on us changing our topic."

"Oh, he will when he finds out that I had no say in it."

"You won't say a word," Severus answered confidently, "It wouldn't bode well for you if Professor Slughorn found out that his new assistant frequently oversleeps when she needs to be working."

He was right. She knew it. Never would she admit to Professor Slughorn that the reason they hadn't agreed on a topic was because she had overslept by four hours. In fact, if she was honest with herself, she knew that she would have done the exact same thing. Only she wouldn't have picked a topic so revolting.

But Fate had smiled upon her today for it just so happened that Geoff Kruger's biography had been the book she was reading when she found the suggestion of time travel. Perhaps this was Fate's way of making sure she killed two birds with one stone. Her dread of this project was beginning to lessen, though she still detested the fact that she was having to work on it with Snape of all people.

"So how did you know I was Professor Slughorn's new assistant?" She asked as she got out some of her study materials and cracked open the book.

"He told me last night. Said that next time I came in, I would have help with the potions." He looked her over and continued, "though how he could consider _you_ helpful I have no idea."

"My potions are flawless, I follow the directions perfectly!" She exclaimed.

"Which is y our problem precisely. You follow the directions to the letter and you actually _believe_ that you achieve the best result that way."

"Of course I do. You can't expect a good result if you don't follow the directions."

Severus didn't reply. He smirked and laughed a bit to himself but he didn't reply. It aggravated Hermione the way he acted as though he was the supreme authority on, well, everything. Honestly, how on earth were you supposed to make a potion without following the directions? Hadn't years of potions classes taught him that deviating even a little bit can result in an explosion? Or was that something he had learned only after teaching Neville Longbottom?

Despite her protesting stomach, Hermione stayed in that library with Severus for ten hours. Together they had gotten through a grand total of eight books. Because of the topic Severus had selected, they couldn't just look through the index to find what they were looking for, and they absolutely could not skim through the books. No, they had to read every sentence and search for useful information.

Few words had been exchanged and the only constant noise were their protesting stomachs, longing for food. They probably would have stayed even later if Madame Pince hadn't kicked them out of the library.

They agreed that they would set up another time to work on their project the next night in Professor Slughorn's office. It was going to be Hermione's first night as his assistant and she nervous. She dreaded the thought of screwing up this opportunity.

Her stomach did not allow her to go straight back to her room but insisted instead on going to the Great Hall to see if there was anything left. While there were no students, there was still a bit of old food left on the table. Just enough to make a small ham sandwich that Hermione ate in just two bites.

Praying that her stomach was satisfied, she grabbed an extra bit of bread just in case and headed back to her room. Not quite as full as it was that afternoon, Benjy and Caradoc had long since retired to their own common room, Hermione gladly took in the scene. Remus was, as usual, laying down on one of the couches, buried in a book. Sirius and James were playing a game of exploding snap with Peter watching idly and Lily was pretending to do an essay, though Hermione noticed the way her eyes drifted towards James every few moments.

They all turned to look at her when the portrait closed behind her. She did her best to smile and say hello as she exhaustedly set her now heavier pack on the floor. Five more books had been added to the weight and her back was now beginning to feel the strain. But unlike usual, she did not immediately settle on the couch opposite of Remus.

She had been studying that book on chess that she had taken from the library and tonight she was going to prove, once and for all, that she could beat him. With a smile she grabbed the book fro his hand and bookmarked the page before dumping it on the floor.

"I challenge you, Mr. Lupin, to a game of wizard chess."

Looking more than a bit stunned, Remus agreed and with her back turned, Hermione was unable to see all the silent cheers and suggestive glances that were being thrown their way. Or,of course, the way that Lily smacked each and every one of them.

It took only a few minutes for the chess board to be set up and the game began. Everyone, of course, set aside what they were doing to watch. Lily was, obviously rooting for Hermione while the boys stuck to Remus side.

It turned out to be a long game, though no one noticed. Hermione was actually giving Remus a run for his money. She had come close to beating him a good number of times but experience was on Remus' side and he managed to get free every time.

Two and a half hours later, an elated Remus announced, "Checkmate!" and Hermione applauded.

"Congratulations,but I almost had you."

Remus laughed and patted her on the back. "Sorry Hermione, maybe next time."

Picking up his book, Remus sat back down on the couch while Hermione cleaned up the chess set. She saw from the corner of her eye, James nudge Sirius sharply in the stomach and seconds later Sirius let out a loud, and very forced , yawn.

"Oi, I think it's time for me to head off to bed."

"Oh, yeah, yeah, me too." Squealed Peter when he too was elbowed in the ribs.

Remus glared while he said goodnight to the two while Hermione stared at them oddly. Once the portrait door closed, James grabbed Lily's arm and started to pull her towards his room. "Potter! What in Merlin's name-"

"Don't you remember, we have things to _discuss_ in my room." He half whispered.

Catching his drift, Lily brightened a bit and followed his lead. "Oh yeah, now I remember, lots and lots to discuss." She turned to Hermione and said, "This might be a while, don't wait up."

Of course Hermione knew exactly what they were about to do and she couldn't help but laugh as she said goodnight to them as well. Now it was just her and Remus left in the common room.

"That was a bit odd," Remus said as she settled down on the couch, clutching her pack.

"Yeah, a bit." She answered as she started to take out the books she needed for the night.

"Why don't you just shrink your books so that they're easier to carry around?" Remus asked suddenly.

"I'd be too tempted to carry around even more."

"Well the weight certainly doesn't seem to be stopping you. Looks like you've brought back a few more than usual."

Hermione shrugged and grabbed on of the books on Kruger. "Severus insisted I look through these before meet again, that way we might actually get something done."

"So I take it this afternoon wasn't productive?"

"Oh it was," Hermione said, trying to be serious, "I mean, he chose our topic without discussing it with me first, he yelled at me, he insulted my intelligence, and we didn't say one word about the project to each other. I think it went quite well."

Remus smiled sympathetically at her. "I'm sure it will get better. Or at least a bit eaiser."

"I hope," Hermione sighed, "or else one of us wont live to see Christmas."


	10. Chapter 10

**_Arent you proud? I got this chapter out LOADS quicker than I expected. Just a week since my last update. Not much to say on this side except thank you for all of the reviews. You have no idea how much I appreaciate them. OH, and just a reminder, yes this story is going to be SS/HG. I would say more but my stomach is growling and I need to get me some FOOD! Anyway, I hope you enjoy the chapter and as always, PLEASE REVIEW!_**

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After a long day of doing basically nothing, on Lily's orders of course, Hermione was almost glad for the excuse to get away. It was almost enough to cover the nerves she was feeling as she walked down the dungeon corridors. Tonight was going to be her first go as Professor Slughorn's assistant and while she had been doing wonderfully in his class she was worried about how she would preform outside of class.

Sure she knew that all the tasks given to her would be menial, there was always a chance of royally screwing up. Especially with Severus standing near her, arrogantly staring down his long hooked nose at her, trying to make her screw up.

As reluctant as she was to admit it, Severus intimidated her. She was beginning to realize that his mood and demeanor had actually softened a bit with age. The looks he had given her previously as her professor were nothing compared to the ones she had to endure yesterday. There were times when she couldn't help but give herself a once over to check to see if anything had actually burst into flames.

Before she knew it, she was standing in front of the Potions Classroom. Without another thought, Hermione stepped in and found that Professor Slughorn and Severus were already there. Obviously they had arrived early as she was still early by a few minutes, but the look that Severus gave her when she walked in told her that she should probably plan on arriving even earlier in the future.

"Ah, Miss Granger," Professor Slughorn greeted from behind his desk, "not much for you to do tonight. Just grab a cauldron and help Mr. Snape prepare some pepperup potions for the Hospital Wing."

An easy task, just as she had expected. Without a word she put down her pack and sat down in front of the cauldron to the right of Severus. It looked as though he had barely started on his potion so she couldn't have arrived too much later than him. Even though Hermione knew the way to make the pepperup potion by heart she still grabbed for her potions book and opened it to the right page. After all, it never hurt to make sure you were following directions.

Of course Severus rolled his eyes the second the book entered his field of vision. Hermione ignored him and held her head high as she re-read the first direction to double check it with the one she remembered, and she began.

It was smooth going, making the potions. Every so often, she would look over at Severus' cauldron and was annoyed when she found that while her potion was by the book perfect, his seemed to be just a dash better. Not to be outdone, she was that much more careful with how she did everything. Instead of just triple checking the directions, she began to quadruple check them.

By the time they had both finished their first batch of potions, an hour and a half had gone by and they had filled up twenty four vials out of the seventy five that were needed. As they cleaned up their cauldrons and the surrounding area to prepare to begin the potion again, Professor Slughorn walked by to check their work.

As was expected, he smiled appreciatively at the both of them.

"Perfect, just perfect," she heard him mutter as he walked past.

"But Miss Granger, try to use only the best ingredients, this one bottle looks a little off." He said in a louder voice, holding up one of the center vials, before vanishing what was inside.

Hermione didn't even have to look over to feel the smirk radiating from Severus. And he certainly didn't have to look at her face to notice the irritation radiating from her. "Yes Sir," she answered a bit tightly as he walked back towards his desk.

She wanted to ask him straight out why he had just assumed that the slightly dull vial was hers, but she resisted. Obviously Professor Slughorn was intimately familiar with the way Severus' potions looked so of course he would be able to distinguish between the two. But was it so impossible to think that the lackluster potion had come from Mr. I-Never-Mess-Up-My-Potions-Even-Though-I-Never-Follow-Directions?

As they both started on the last batch, Hermione was extra careful. She took extra time looking at the ingredients and taking only those she thought were best so that this time her potion would surpass Severus'. But, unfortunately, as time went by she noticed the same thing happening. Her potion looked perfect, just like the book said the potion should look, but somehow Severus' looked better!

It was infuriating. Hermione wanted to start kicking and screaming by the time they were pouring the rest of the potion into the bottles. It was just impossible! She had followed the directions perfectly and still she was outdone. And it was like rubbing salt in an open wound with Professor Slughorn instructed them to fill up the rest of the bottles with Severus' potion first, and _then_ fill the those that remained with hers.

This was not the best first day on the job.

After the potions were done, Professor Slughorn gave them both a stack of first year essays to grade, along with the guidelines that they were to follow and instructions to have them back by the end of the week, and sent them back to the common rooms.

It was torture walking along the corridors with Severus, resisting the urge to slam his smirking face into the stone walls next to them. How dare he, in one night, break her unbreakable confidence in books? How dare he point out their fallibility? Perhaps she had been wrong when she said that one of them would not survive until the Christmas holiday. No, what she should have said was that one of them would most definitely not survive until October.

And the awful part was that she still had business to take care of with him before they both went back to their respective common rooms. They had to set up another time to meet and work on the project.

It wasn't until Hermione knew that they were only a few feet from the Slytherin Common Room that she said, "Tuesday right after dinner."

"Excuse me?" He asked with a small dose of venom that was quite unnecessary.

"That's when we should meet up to work on the project. Tuesday, right after dinner."

"Why Tuesday, why not tomorrow?"

"Because unlike you Snape, I actually have a life!" She spat before stormed off.

Unsure of why she had just said that with such a cutting tone, she continued towards her common room without looking back. Merlin knows she would have been met by a glare that actually would have turned her to dust. The heat of the look on her neck alone was enough to make her wish for a cool wash cloth.

It was quite frustrating the way he treated her, though, like she was a lesser person who had no choice but to bend, always, to his will and wishes. How he could have managed to survive this long with that sort of arrogance was completely beyond her imagination.

But perhaps she was being a bit too hard on Snape. She was judging him already for the sins of his future self, which was partially unfair. Just because he was going to do something doesn't mean that she should already hate him for it. And after all, he did turn out to be a halfway decent man in the end, risking his life for the Order and all that. But with the way his younger self was acting, she was finding it hard to see how the little prat would do anything that didn't directly benefit himself.

By the time Hermione arrived at her room, she had decided that she would give Snape one chance to prove her wrong. After all, wouldn't this semester go by so much faster if she did? Or at least much eaiser?

Much to her surprise, Hermione found Remus laying down on the couch, book resting on his stomach, fast asleep. She smiled as she tip toed over to where he was snoring rather loudly and she wished that there was a camera present.

He looked different when he was sleeping. The lines of worry were gone from his face and he didn't look as though he were carrying the weight of the world on his shoulders. His hair was a mess, falling every which way, and a few bits had gotten caught in his eyes.

He smiled in his sleep and Hermione wondered what he might be dreaming about. A girl perhaps? Or maybe an adventure with his fellow marauders? Or, she dared, a boy?

She enjoyed seeing him th is peaceful. It broke her heart knowing what a hard life he had in front of him, how much pain he would have to endure in such a small amount of time. She wouldn't wish his fate on even her worst enemies.

He mumbled something in his sleep and she was thrown back out of her thoughts and back into reality. She didn't dare wake him, he looked so exhausted, and so instead she summoned a blanket and laid over him to keep him warm. She said goodnight and gently removed the hair away from his eyes.

Her next thought took her completely by surprise as she moved to go to her own room. Remus Lupin was an incredibly handsome boy. Banishing the thought almost as soon as it came into her mind, Hermione moved quickly towards the door to her room, only to be stopped by a smirking James, standing with his arms folded just in front of the entrance.

She said nothing, and thanked Merlin that it was too dark for him to see her blushing, as she moved past him and up into her room. Had he been standing there the entire time? Granted, nothing happened. All she had done was tuck in a friend. But then why had he been smirking?

Lily was, of course, still awake when Hermione came in. "Have a nice snog?" She teased as she let her pack fall carelessly to the ground.

"Oh shut it," Lily answered with a huge smile as she always did. "And I'm warning you, next time you ask me that I'm giving you details."

Hermione wrinkled her nose and made a small gagging noise before she was hit in the face with a pillow, which she quickly threw back at Lily. "So, how did your first day on the job go?"

"Awful," she began, "I followed the directions to the letter and Snape still ended up doing better than me."

"Maybe he bewitched your cauldron," Lily offered.

"I doubt it, he was too focused on his own I think. But thanks."

Within twenty minutes, Lily was snoring soundly in her bed while Hermione was sitting up in hers, trying to get through the first year essays. There was a stack of at least fifty and she had hardly gotten through two. It was going to be a nightmare trying to grade all of these by Friday. She knew she should probably stay up and try to finish a few more but she was just too tired to even think about it.

So she reluctantly put aside the essays and settled into bed. She was asleep before her head hit the pillow.

"I swear, when I came downstairs she was staring at him while he was sleeping." James explained for the fifth time to a disbelieving Sirius.

James had pulled him up there after dinner while everyone else was busy to tell Sirius what he had seen the night before.

"But why would she have been staring at him? Was he snoring?"

"Hardly. Not enough for her to stop and stare. It's obvious she likes him!"

"I think we're going to need a bit more proof before we tell Mooney though."

"Well, she did wrap him up in a blanket."

Sirius thought about it for a moment. "Could have been a friendly gesture."

"Not the way _she_ was looking at him." James answered seriously.

"But that's not how he's going to look at it, which is the important thing."

And just as James was going to make another point, the man of the hour walked in.

"What are you two girls gossiping about now?" Remus said as he walked in the room and took a seat on Jame's bed.

"Nothing," James and Sirius answered together.

"Right," answered Remus, looking less than convinced.

"Oi, I thought you were supposed to be downstairs kicking Hermione's butt at chess?" Asked Sirius, trying to change the subject.

"I decided to let her win."

James and Sirius exchanged a smile, which Remus noticed. "It wasn't like that, I just felt like giving her a bit of confidence in her playing ability. She's still a bit down from last night."

"Why, what happened last night?" James asked, hoping that it had nothing to do with what he caught her doing.

"Apparently Snape made better potions than she did, despite the fact that she followed the directions perfectly. She thinks that Professor Slughorn hates her as well."

"Well what does she expect? Snape's a Slytherin and so is Slughorn. Of course he's going to favor Snape over her."

Remus shrugged his shoulders. "I guess she's just not used to house loyalty."

"He let me win," Hermione told Lily as she picked up the chess board. "I just know it."

"Well that was nice of him," Lily answered from the couch where she was helping Peter with his essay.

"Or demeaning, like I couldn't win against him unless he let me. Honestly, it's an insult to my intelligence!"

Lily rolled her eyes as she explained the properties of gillyweed to Peter. "He was just trying to be nice, Hermione, trust me."

"Of course he was," chimed in Peter, "he's always really nice to the girls he likes."

Both Hermoine and Lily stopped what they were doing and stared at Peter, who had immediately gone pale and slapped his hand over his mouth.

"He what?" Hermione asked in a quieter voice than she normally used.

"Nothing," Lily answered for him. "He didn't say anything."

"Yeah, I di-didn't say a th-thing." Peter stuttered as his face turned from pale to the darkest shade of red Hermione had ever seen on one person.

"Yes you did," she answered quickly. "You said that he is always nice to the girls he likes. And that he was nice to me. So basically you were saying that Remus likes me."

"No he doesn't. Peter was just joking, weren't you Peter?" She said with a quick and painful nudge to his ribs.

"Right, I was joking." he agreed as he tried to smile.

By the look on both of their faces, Hermione knew that neither of them were joking. If they _had_ been joking, then laughter would have been involved, not blushing and stuttering. But then again, they must have been joking because it would be impossible to think that Remus liked her. He was going to be her professor one day for Merlin's sake! But then again, he had no idea that he would be her professor one day. All he knew was that she was some transfer student. So there would be nothing like say, a twenty year age difference keeping him from liking her.

But there was the fact that she was Hermione. She wasn't pretty, or interesting, or anything else that attracted the opposite sex. After all, besides Krum, few other boys had ever approached her unless they wanted help on their homework. So it was impossible to think that Remus, after so short of time, would like her.

It even took a few weeks for her best friends to start to like her, and that was only in a friendly way.

No, it was impossible. They had to be joking. Besides, even if Remus liked her she didn't like him. He was her teacher, her superior, it would be inappropriate.

But then again, he was very handsome.


	11. Chapter 11

_Hey guys, I've bet you've missed me a bit :) Ok, well here's the thing. I got about four pages into the chapter when all of a sudden the chord that charges up my laptop decided to DIE! Took me about four weeks to find a replacement chord, and by that time this Author had found not only a job, but a boyfriend. Cute story really. I went out to dinner to celebrate my finally getting a drivers liscence and quite by chance, I decided to change our plans and head over to Olive Garden. And we got the CUTEST server there. I mean he was a cuite with a bootie. So since I was on a confidence high with the new lisense, I decided to leave the cute waiter my number. And he called. And we went out. And hit it off. And so we've been dating now for about six weeks. Yeah. Anyway, enough of my rambiling. I have to get to bed, lloonngg day tomorrow. But PLEASE! Read and Review. Reviews keep me writing :)_

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Just in time! Hermione had stayed up all night and had even skipped breakfast to finish all the essays before turning them into Professor Slughorn that morning. The past week had been absolutely brutal. She hadn't been able to study with Bejy, Caradoc, or Remus at all. In fact, finding time to study at all outside of potions had been a challenge.

She had been called to work with Professor Slughorn three times so far that week, and on the days that she wasn't working with Professor Slughorn, she was in the library with Severus working on the project.

Well, to be honest, they hadn't really been working. There was very little actual communication. That tuesday when they had meet, Severus had told her before she had even put her stuff down what she was going to be looking for specifically that day as well as how to go about it. She had been too tired to argue after a long night of grading essays.

It had been the hardest week she had had to endure so far. Her hope that Professor Slughorn would gradually get easier on her was now completely gone. He hadn't gotten easier at all, in fact, he had gotten even worse! His remarks regarding her potions were growing more caustic while his praise for Severus seemed to grow tenfold.

Her stress level was near breaking point and the night before she had almost broken. Unfortunately her breakdown wasn't a private one. Lily and the Marauders had been in the common room when she ran in with tears streaming down her face. She couldn't even remember what caustic remark Severus had made to put her in such a state, but it didn't really matter. The moment Remus saw her in such a state, he ran over and took her in his arms. The moment James and Sirius heard her mention Severus, they started plotting their revenge to defend her honor of course.

Who said chivalry was dead?

But the freak out the previous night seemed to have done some good. Afterwards she was able to concentrate on her work and not think about all of the millions ways she would like to hurt Severus.

And now that her classes were over for the day, she was looking forward to a nice rest before she had to go and meet Severus to work on their project.

The common room was unusually empty when she walked in. Confused, she walked up to her room where she found Lily lying on the bed reading.

"Where is everyone?" Hermione asked as she too fell down on her bed.

"James said something about teaching Severus a lesson." Lily replied with a nonchalance that bothered Hermione.

"He what?"

"Don't get too worked up Hermione. James and them are always doing things like this to Severus, and Remus won't let them go too far." She answered from behind her book.

Hermione paled and began to panic. She knew what sort of pranks the Marauders used to pull on Severus and they were usually far from harmless. There was no way she could let them do this! Severus was her partner, there was no way she was going to let him have a weeks holiday in the hospital wing when there was work to be done.

"Where did they go?" Hermione asked, pulling the book away from Lily.

"Entrance Hall I think," said Lily as she grabbed her book back, "and try not to do that again, alright?"

Without a second thought, Hermione grabbed her wand and bolted out of the room. She didn't remember running this fast in ages, at least, not since fifth year during the battle at the Ministry. She pushed every student that dared come in between her and her destination out of the way. It took longer than she wanted to get to the Entrance Hall, but it seemed that she had just in time. She spotted the Marauders with their wands raised, snickering in the corner and followed the direction of their wands to Severus, whose nose was too buried in a book to see what was going on.

A small magical ring just a few feet in front of Severus caught Hermione's eye and before she knew it, she was running towards Severus. Her hands made contact with him, but instead of pushing him out of the line of fire, she pushed him into one of the broom cupboards.

The only way that Hermione was able to tell that she landed on Severus front was his gigantic nose poking her uncomfortably in the neck. At least, she hoped it was his nose poking her uncomfortably in the neck. Either way, once her head stopped spinning, she scrambled off of him and up against a wall of some sort.

It was completely dark in the room, unfortunately, as the door had slammed shut after them. She could hear Severus' sneer from where he sat on the floor, and she rolled her eyes as she began to feel the walls for the door.

"What in Merlin's name was that for?" He snapped.

"That was saving your arse Snape." She snapped back before squealing when her hand came into contact with a very big spider web.

"You might have to explain that one to me, Granger," Severus spat before lighting his wand.

Hermione tried not to blush. Of course! She should have used her wand in the first place. How thick could she get. With the light from Severus' wand, she walked over to the door on the other end of the room and grabbed the handle.

"James and Sirius and the other's were about to pull a prank on you and I couldn't afford for you to spend the next week or so in the hospital wing with so much work to be done." Hermione told him as she pulled on the door handle.

But it didn't budge.

So she pulled again, harder this time.

It didn't even creak.

Remembering her wand, Hermione started to try every unlocking spell she knew. But nothing worked.

"Out of the way," Severus said as he literally pushed her out of the way.

He tried a few spells of his own, and pulled too on the door, but his efforts seemed to come up short as well.

"We're stuck," he said and Hermione could hear the sneer forming on his face as he spoke.

Obviously the boys had put in a few preventative measures for their prank, just in case someone had come to his rescue. Though she doubted they had thought she would be Severus' rescuer. There was a strong locking charm on the door and while she was beyond furious at them for putting her in this sort of a situation, she made a mental note to ask what spell they had used.

Meanwhile Hermione was about to resort to plan B, aka banging on the door and making as much noise as she could, when she heard a voice call out from the other side.

"Oi, Hermione, you in there?"

Suddenly very angry at the boy on the other side, Hermione clenched her fists at her side and shouted louder than she had in ages, "Sirius Black! When I get out of this room I'm going to curse your manhood off!"

"Yeah, I think she's in there," said James with a bit of a laugh.

"You know Hermione, keep saying things like that and I might not want to let you out." Sirius answered.

"Just unlock the door Sirius." Hermione tried in a nicer tone.

"Well, that's the problem you see? We don't actually know how to." James said a few moments later.

"I used a charm from one of the books you lent me and I never was able to locate the counter charm." Explained Remus who at least had the courtesy to sound guilty.

"Then go get Professor Flitwick," Hermione half shouted before shaking her head and whispering, "dimwits," under her breath.

She back away from the door and clenched her fists tight at her sides when she heard the sound of feet scurrying away. "This is all your fault," she hissed at Severus.

"Excuse me?" He spat back as he raised his wand to her face. "How in Merlin's name is this my fault?"

"If you hadn't been such an arse to me before then James, Sirius, Remus, and Peter would've had no reason to do this to you!" she finally yelled.

Her voice echoed around the room and with each echo, Severus' face darkened. "They don't need a reason," he snarled.

"Oh, like this didn't all start with you being an arse to one of them. You wouldn't know civility if came up behind you and smacked you in the head!" She screamed as she closed the gap between them.

She tried to match him glare for glare, but no matter how angry, how furious she got, there was no way she would ever be able to focus so much anger and hate into her eyes.

"Watch your tongue," he spat in her face, "or you might just lose it."

"Hot air and empty threats," she growled, "that's all you are Snape."

When she saw his wand moving down away from her face, instinct took over and instead of reaching for her wand Hermione swung her fist in his direction. Without the light from his wand, she wasn't exactly sure where she was aiming but judging by the squish she felt when her hand connected she had hit his eye. And even though her punch and driven him to the ground, he still had enough wits about him to use his wand.

She dodged his curse by hardly an inch and again, instead of grabbing her wand and settling this argument like a real witch, she got down on the floor and aimed for his face again. Severus grabbed her by the shoulders and rolled her over before she could get more than two punches in.

He straddled her hip and pinned her arms down at her sides so that despite her struggling, there was no way she could punch him again. Hermione felt something wet dripping on her blouse and figured it was blood from Severus' nose., or lip, or cheek.

Still to angry to be grossed out or even give up, she struggled against him and hissed, "Why do you have to be such an arse?"

"Why do you have to be such a pain in mine?" He hissed back.

Even in the pitch black, Hermione could feel his face hardly an inch from hers. His not so pleasant breath was being blown right in her nose. And after grimacing, she moved her head to the side to try to avoid the foul odor. The position she was in was starting to get on her nerves and she was about to threaten Severus when she heard a great burst of laughter coming from outside the door.

It was enough of a distraction that she was able to free her arms and push Severus off of her and back onto the floor. Grabbing her wand, she stood back up and walked over to where the door was. Though there were many people laughing, she was able to distinguish one out of the masses. Sirius. His bark of a laugh was so, well, individual it was impossible to mistake.

Glad that they had finally come back, Hermione raised her hand and started to bang onto the door. "Sirius Black! Let me out of here!"

"Alright, alright," he called back, "just don't start with the threats or I will change my mind."

Hermione bit her lip to keep back the quip that was dying to leap off of her tongue.

"Stand back," came the tiny squeak that could only have come from Professor Flitwick.

Smiling Hermione stepped back and ran into Severus. He pushed her back but she took no notice, too glad that soon she would be away from him. It took a few moments for the Professor to unlock the door and Hermione had to admit she was disappointed. She had expected a big display, a loud crash as the door swung open off of it's hinges. Instead there was just a pathetic little click and the creak as the door inched open.

The noise of the laughter outside only increased when the door opened. Surprisingly in her haste Hermione was not the first one out of the door. Severus beat her to the punch, pushing her roughly aside and storming out in his usual fashion. She glared at his back as she stepped out herself into the Entrance Hall.

"What is everyone laughing at?" She asked Sirius whose eyes were focused elsewhere.

But all she had to do was follow the line of his eye to find the source of so much amusement. She couldn't help but laugh when her eyes fell on Mr. Filch, suspended upside down up against the wall in the Entrance Hall in a full ballerina outfit, complete with a pink bow and all of the frills.

"Enjoying our handiwork?" Said James, who had come up beside her.

She couldn't stop laughing long enough to respond, so she just nodded her head.

"It's what we planned for Severus," muttered Remus from her other side, sounding just a bit disappointed in himself.

That started to quiet her laughter and she immediately turned to look at James. "Is this true?"

Panicked, James' eyes went wide and he quickly pointed straight towards Remus who stared down at his feet. "It was my idea."

The broadest smile swept over Hermione's face and her arms wrapped tightly around Remus. "Thank you!" She said into his neck as she squeezed him as tight as she could.


	12. Chapter 12

_Ok, first of all I would like to apologize before hand for the shortness of this chapter. I didn't want to keep going because, well, I wanted to get something out sooner rather then later and this seemed like a half decent spot to end. RL has been insane lately and I doubt it will be calming down any time soon since by this time next week I should be employed full time. Anyway, not much else to say except please READ AND REVIEW! Oh, and enjoy ;)_

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"Can you believe we got detention for two weeks?" James grumbled as he walked into the common room the next night.

He was alone. After such a brutal detention everyone felt like going to bed.

"Well it's not like you lot don't deserve it," Hermione called from where she was spread out on the couch.

Her project meeting with Severus had obviously been canceled and she had taken the opportunity to pick up the books at Hogsmeade that Dumbledore had ordered for her. There were around twenty in front of her and she was looking through each one trying to find any mention of time traveling.

"Oi! You should be thanking me, not scolding me. We were defending your honor!" James told her, sounding slightly annoyed, as he plopped down in his favorite chair by the fire.

"Which I never asked you to defend," she answered.

"Well I'm sorry if my chivalrous nature refused to let what he did to you go unpunished." James sighed dramatically before saying, "Oh yeah, and Benjy and Caradoc are looking for you. I think they're in the library."

Hermione smiled and almost jumped off of the couch in her excitement. "Do you know why they're looking for me?" She asked as she quickly began to put away her things.

"Nope, Remus was the one that told me they were looking for you anyway." He laughed a bit at the way she was suddenly behaving and said to himself, "I wish Lily would get that excited when someone tells her i'm looking for her."

Hermione rolled her eyes. "I just haven't seen them in a while, that's all."

"Sure," James answered unconvincingly.

Without a goodbye, Hermione gathered the rest of her things in her bag and left the common room. It wasn't that she was excited to go see them, it was that she was excited that they had actually been looking for her. Something about having people actively searching for you boots confidence.

She was surprised that they would be in the library so late though. It would be curfew in less than an hour and by now she figured they would have migrated to their own common room. When she walked into the library, it didn't take her too long to find them. Unlike herself, they preferred to study near the front of the library. They must have seen her about the same time she had spotted them, because when she looked over Benjy was waving her over and smiling.

"Looks like you've brought enough books," smiled Benjy when she sat down and threw her bag onto the table.

"Huh?"

"Studying. You said you would study with us on the weekends. It's the weekend Hermione." Caradoc teased.

Hermione's face dropped. She had completely forgotten about agreeing to that. It had been so hectic lately, she had hardly had a chance to breathe much less remember this. "Merlin, I forgot," she admitted, "sorry, it's been really crazy lately."

"Yeah, we heard about yesterday. Sirius was telling us how it was the first time Remus had ever gotten them detention." Laughed Caradoc.

"Apparently he felt as though he needed to defend my honor." Smiled Hermione.

Benjy and Caradoc caught her smile and exchanged ones of their own.

"What?" She asked, wondering what the looks that had just given each other were about.

"Nothing," smirked Benjy, "nothing at all."

"Now what's this you said about forgetting all about us?" Caradoc asked, putting on his best sad face.

"It's not that I forgot," Hermone answered, "it's just that I lost track of my days."

"I still think you need to make it up to us. Ol' Caradoc here is particularly hurt," Benjy said, putting his hand on Caradoc's back and putting on a sad face of his own.

Their show made Hermione smile again. "Alright, how can I make it up to you?"

"Hang out with us tomorrow. No studying, a book free afternoon."

"Did Lily put you up to this?" Hermione asked sarcastically, then after a moment said, "Alright I will. But now I think I have to be getting back to my room before curfew."

After a moment more of talking, Hermione grabbed her bag and left the library with a smile. She was happy to be making friends that were safe and that she wouldn't eventually see when she got home. And it was nice to know that she would be able to survive without Harry and Ron standing beside her every step of the way. That she was able to fend for herself. Make friends of her own. At least, for a while.

Lost in thought, Hermione didn't even see the person coming toward her until there shoulders connected painfully.

She was about to say sorry, when she caught sight of who she had collided with and instead of saying sorry she just bust out laughing. There was Severus, glaring at her though his black eye and sneering with his bruised lip, bent down and picking up the books that had fallen to the floor. He looked a right mess and all Hermione could think about was how perfect it would be if someone were to come up and give him a right kick in the arse.

"Nice eye," she finally said once her laughter had died down.

He didn't give a response but she could tell by the look on his face that he was doing everything he could to keep from hexing her right there.

But she wasn't afraid, in fact, she had been waiting years for the chance to taunt Snape with no fear of repercussions, so she kept on. "Told your mates where you got that nice little shiner? I doubt it. Probably gave some lame macho excuse. Wouldn't want them to know that you were beaten up by a girl with dirty blood?" She laughed dryly before continuing, "You think that you would have at least learned how to cast a decent glamor charm by now, what with all the experience you have with them."

She knew she shouldn't have said that last bit, but she couldn't help herself. Besides, she was sure that Severus would never guess what she was referring to. It hadn't taken long for Harry to spill the beans on what he had seen in the pensive during his lessons. She had nagged him so long about quitting that he had no choice but to tell them. And now Hermione had tried to use Snape's history of abuse against him.

For a moment, she regretted what she had said.

Just for a moment.

"Excuse me?" Severus asked as he shot fire at her with his eyes and stepped closer.

"Merlin knows you've been attacked more times than I can count. Surely you haven't escaped unscathed each time?"

It wasn't possible for his eyes to shower greater hate then they did in this moment. She doubted even Harry would have been able to elicit such a reaction. It was oddly satisfying. "I suggest you shut your mouth before you say something you will really regret."

"Or what?" She smiled, "you're going to let me punch you again?"

She didn't even see his fist coming until it came crashing down onto her nose. Her hands immediately flew to her injured face to protect it from the second blow that she could see coming from the corner of her eye. At least, until her vision went dark and Severus' fist connected with her head.

Usually in a situation like this, her first instinct would be to move for her wand, but with her hands still covering her bloody nose, her left eye currently out of commission, and her right eye tearing up, there was very little she could do except wait for yet another blow to the face.

Severus was nothing more than a black blur in her line of vision and she flinched when he raised his hand once more. Though she couldn't see it, she _knew_ he was smirking at her.

"Meet me in the library tomorrow night." He said with a smile in his voice before she heard his footsteps trailing away.

She wanted to scream at him, hex him, spit on him, anything but she was in no state to do any of that. Her head was pounding and she could feel her nose and eye swelling up and she figured that it would be in her best interest to get to the hospital wing as quick as possible.

Thankfully it was so close to curfew there were very few students out and those that she did pass were from other houses and years and knew nothing of her. When she arrived at the hospital wing, Madame Pomefry immediately asked what had happened. Hermione lied and said that she had tripped down some stairs.

Obviously this didn't go over well with the medi-witch because right after she was finished healing her eye, she could see the disbelief written all over her face. But she wasn't about to admit that she was just bested by Severus Snape. Not only would it get him in unnecessary trouble, and eventually her when he told them what happened to _his_ face, but it would be an incredible blow to her pride.

After all it was entirely her fault that she had gotten hit. Granted Snape seriously needed to learn how to control his temper, but she also needed to learn how to control her tongue. She knew that she was going too far, intentionally pushing his buttons in order to get a reaction. And Merlin had she ever!

It didn't take too long for Madame Pomefry to stitch her up, by by the time she was done it was well past curfew. So Hermione crept quietly through the corridors, hoping to keep away from all prefects and professors. If she ran into either Lily or James it wouldn't be too bad, she would just have to think of something to tell them that would explain her absence. She wasn't sure if she would have to explain her face, that was something she would have to determine once she got to the bathroom.

Her trip back to her room was thankfully uneventful. There was no one in the common room when she came in, and it was a good thing too, she realized once she looked at herself in the bathroom mirror. Madame Pomefry was able to heal everything but that didn't mean that there wouldn't be some bruising or scarring for that matter. Though she hadn't realized it at the time, Severus must have been wearing some sort of ring. While it thankfully must have missed her nose, it had scratched the corner of her left eye pretty deep. But despite the slight bruising around it, her scratch looked kinda cool. It was an extension of her natural eye crease and had the scratch been black, she would have looked slightly Egyptian.

At least it wasn't as bad as she had been expecting. By all the tongue clicking the Medi-witch had been doing, Hermione had thought she was going to be disfigured for life. And to be fair, she had been warned that she wouldn't leave looking as good as new.

As cool as it was, it was going to be hard to explain this to everyone in the morning. There was no way she could tell them that Snape had done it, after all, they had gone overboard when Snape had stressed her out and she had cried. There was no telling what they would do if they ever found out that he had hit her.

Lily wasn't in bed when Hermione walked inside. Probably off somewhere making out with James, Hermione thought. She didn't feel like staying up to read or do research or even finish up some homework. It had been a long and slightly unfortunate day and she was desperate for a decent nights sleep. Perhaps she would sleep all day to avoid having to explain her appearance. Merlin knows she could use with a day's rest.

And with thoughts of revenge dancing around in her head, Hermione fell right to sleep.


	13. Chapter 13

**This is late, I know. It's taken me forever to get this out, I know. All the usual excuses, real life is sucking balls, don't feel up to writing too much these days, and I've been busy. Not to mention Boyfriend has taken over my life, not that I'm complaining :) Sorry if the chapter isn't as good as usual but it was a serious struggle to get this out at all. But I still hope you enjoy it. Oh, and has anyone else watched the new Torchwood episodes? Totally fantastic :) Anyway, I hope you enjoy and as always please review!**

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The next morning after breakfast, Lily sat in the common room talking with the Marauders. Hermione was still asleep. Lily had tried to wake her up before breakfast, but she wouldn't wake and once she had seen the bruises on Hermione's face, Lily halted her efforts.

"She had a massive bruise around her eye, it looked like she was punched in the face," Lily reported to the common room.

"I wonder what happened," Peter muttered.

"I hope she's alright." Remus said sounding concerned.

"I bet it was Severus," Sirius spat, "when I get my hands on that git,"

"You won't touch him," Lily answered sharply. " you're already in trouble for trying to assault him and you won't go doing it again. At least not until you know for a fact that he was the one. For all you know, she could have done this to herself."

"But, why would she punch herself?" Peter asked.

Lily rolled her eyes. "She probably fell. Sirius, you've told us a million times how clumsy she is. We've all seen it. It's completely plausible."

Honestly, Lily didn't believe a word coming out of her mouth but she at least had to sound convincing. The boys had already gotten themselves in enough trouble over Hermione and she would be damned if they got into any more. It was already so silly for them to be serving two weeks detention over a girl they had just met.

"We'll ask her about it when she wakes up," Remus said trying to help Lily.

"If she wakes up." Lily rolled her eyes. "She's sleeping pretty hard and if her snoring hasn't woken her up already, I doubt anything will."

"Someone's grumpy," James teased, "is snoring beauty keeping you up late?"

Lily shot him a look that quickly wiped the smile off of his face.

Remus could feel the tension in the room begin to build and it was starting to make him uncomfortable.

"How about a nice game of quidditch?" He suggested knowing that there was no way Sirius and James would be able to say no.

That was enough to put a smile back on James' face as he raced back upstairs and grabbed his broom. Sirius was already out the door, running towards Gryffindor tower. Remus shook his head at the two as he grabbed Peter and left the common room for Gryffindor Tower.

Hermione hadn't been as asleep as everyone had thought. In fact, she had hardly slept at all. Her head was throbbing the entire night and it didn't help when Lily came stumbling in at near two in the morning. The snoring had only been to make Lily think that she was asleep so she wouldn't be bothered.

It was hard to keep her eyes closed and her snoring going while Lily was pushing her around and trying to wake her up. Lily was anything but gentle. But Lily had seen Hermione's cut and obviously decided to let her sleep. At least, that's what she heard of the conversation in the common room.

She had been listening at the door the entire time and waiting until they had left before she came out. Honestly she didn't want to be asked any questions. She wasn't going to have any decent answers and telling the truth just wasn't an option. Lily was right, the boys had already gotten in enough trouble on her account and she wasn't going to get them into any more.

When she was convinced that they had finally gone she opened the door and quietly stepped into the common room.

"Don't you dare take one more step," Lily demanded from where she still sat on the couch. "You're not going to run away so easily Miss. We need to have a little chat."

Groaning on the inside, Hermione tried her best to smile innocently as she asked, "What about?"

"Just sit down," Lily continued firmly.

Hermione did as was asked and sat down on the opposite end of the couch.

"What happened to your eye?"

"I tripped down the stairs." Hermione lied.

"Good, at least you've figured out something to tell everyone else. Now care to tell me what _really_ happened?" Lily countered.

"Snape. I suspect he was paying me back for the other day." Hermione finally answered leaving out, of course, the part where she had provoked him.

"And obviously you know that you can't tell James, Remus, or Sirius, right?" Lily asked with something of a glare in her eye.

"Of course! I'm not daft!"

"Good! Because they're already in enough trouble thanks to you."

"Oi! That's not fair." Hermione exclaimed, "I didn't ask them to do anything if you remember. They were only using me as an excuse to torture Snape and you know that."

"Like hell they were," Lily almost screamed, "you honestly want to know why they did it? Remus! He was so angry at Snape for making you upset that he hatched that little plan to stop him from bothering you."

"That makes no sense. I've known him for little more than two weeks, there's no reason why he should be doing that."

"Exactly!" Lily was now screaming, "It makes no sense! You've not even been here a month and already you have Remus wrapped around your little finger, Sirius coming to your rescue, and James talking non stop about how perfect you would be for his best friend! Honestly, where do you get off? You think you're so bloody perfect with your books and your constant studying and your whimpering that you can't go to the pitch, or play a game of chess, or even bloody eat because you have to 'study.' And now you've gone and gotten my boyfriend two weeks of night detention! When the hell am I supposed to snog him now, Hermione? WHEN?"

Hermione was furious. Where did_she_ get off? It wasn't her fault that she sent off some damsel in distress signal that compelled the male species to come and rescue her. And who in Merlin's name was she talking about?

"How about during the day like a normal couple? Don't get angry at me Lily because you're to proud to tell anyone that you're snogging James Potter. Besides, I wasn't the one who wanted to get to know any of the guys. You were the one dragging me off to the pitch saying how I just needed to talk to them and get to know them. I was perfectly fine to stay in the library and study the rest of term. You're the one that dragged me into all this, YOU!"

"You're right," Lily seethed, "it's all my fault. But don't worry, I damn sure won't be making that mistake again."

And with that, Lily got up and stormed out of the common room. But Hermione didn't care. She was seething herself. She saw the chess board sitting on the table in front of her and in a fit of rage, she took it and flung in into the fire. The pieces were screaming as the flames ate them up and unfortunately it did nothing to make her feel better.

As she looked at the clock on the mantle, she thought briefly about throwing it across the room as well but then she caught the time. It was one, about time for her to meet up with Benjy and Caradoc. But she didn't quite feel up to it so she sat there in the common room, conjuring chairs and vases and dishes just so that she could blow them up once more.

It helped.

"You're late."

"Not quite," Hermione spat, "you actually never gave me a time yesterday. All you said was tomorrow night."

Severus sneered. "You're still late."

"Whatever," Hermione rolled her eyes and sat down.

She really didn't feel like having a discussion tonight and so she just grabbed the book that she had been using last time and picked up where she left off. But she hadn't even finished one page of the book when she could feel Severus' eyes on her, no doubt admiring his own handiwork.

She could _hear_ the self-satisfied smile as he asked, "Told anyone about who gave you that nice little cut?"

"Course not," she answered dryly, not looking up from her page, "you'd be dead already if I had."

Severus didn't respond after that and they spent the majority of the in silence, as per usual. Hermione was starting to wonder why they even bothered to do this together. Wouldn't it be a bit more productive if they just did this on their own time? But then again, perhaps Severus just wanted to make sure that she was actually doing something. It wasn't as though he knew her and her nature. And, truth be told, she would have done the same if she had been partnered with anyone but him. However, she had the luxury of already knowing him, or at least knowing of him.

On her way back to the common room, she was cornered by Benjy and Caradoc. They asked why she hadn't shown up that afternoon and she pretended that she had forgotten all about it. Thankfully they seemed to believe her. They tried to schedule another time to get together and hang out, but she told them that she was just too busy. Truth was she didn't feel up to much. She had so much that needed doing when it came to school work, then of course there was the whole finding a way home thing that she needed to figure out.

They seemed disappointed as she walked off and she felt a twinge of guilt for lying and blowing them off but it faded soon after.

The common room was tense when Hermione walked in. Lily was sitting in her favorite armchair and didn't even look up from her book when Hermione walked in. The boys, too, seemed a bit tense and only Remus said hello. But she didn't stay and chat, she went straight up to her room and into her bed with her books not far behind.

It was still quite early and there was still plenty left for her to do. She grabbed one of the books the she suspected might have some information on time travel and got out her notes and was ready to begin when someone knocked on the door.

A bit surprised, Hermione called for them to come in and a second later she found Remus standing in her doorway.

"Hi again," he blushed.

"Hi." She answered, wondering what in the world he was doing.

Closing the door behind him, Remus took a few tentative steps towards her and avoided eye contact.

"H-how are you?" He stammered slightly.

"I'm fine, how are you?" She responded.

"Fine, fine. Of course." He answered.

A few moments of awkward silence passed before Hermione asked, "Do you want to sit down?"

Remus blushed and sat down on the chair in front of Hermione's desk. "Sorry if I'm interrupting," he began, still avoiding her eyes, "but I just wanted to see if you were alright."

"I told you, I'm fine," she said with a fake smile.

"And your eye?"

"I was out in the Forbidden Forest last night," she explained, "and a tree caught me off guard. That's what I get for breaking the rules I guess."

"Right, right," Remus answered.

Something in his tone suggested that he didn't quite believe her, but he didn't say anything else on the subject. In fact, he didn't say anything else at all. He just sat there, looking around the room.

Hermione had never been one to take awkward silences well, so she asked the first thing that came to mind.

"Why are you so nice to me?"

Obviously the question caught him off guard. He looked at her strangely before asking, "What do you mean?"

"I mean," she went on, "you've only known me for a few weeks and yet you're already coming to my rescue. I just don't understand."

"I'm sorry?"

"No, no, it's not a bad thing. I'm not angry or anything, I just don't understand why you would risk getting in trouble for someone that you've only just met."

After a moment of silence, Remus finally meet her eyes and answered, "Because I think you're worth it."

He sat there for one more moment, before he got up and left the room. Hermione stared at the door, confused by his answer. That wasn't what she had wanted to hear, that wasn't what she had _expected_ to hear. And what in Merlin's name did that mean?

Well, if one thing was certain, it was that Hermione would never understand the male sex. Ever.

Lily came up to the room just half an hour after Remus left. She still wasn't acknowledging Hermione's existence which created one of the tensest atmosphere's Hermione had ever felt. She couldn't study like this. She couldn't think like this! And instead of getting all her things together and relocating back down to the common room where the boys were probably making a ruckus, Hermione decided it would probably be best to go to sleep.

So she put her things away, got ready for bed, and without a word to Lily, went to sleep.


	14. Chapter 14

_**...Hi! Um, how are you? I know that most of you probably hate me. I haven't updated in, oh, two years? Sorry about that. But good news! I now have a steady job working overnight and doing nothing! Woo! So that means that **_**hopefully_ i'll be able to write more. And guess what? I finally figured out my plot for this story! Yes, I always had a plot but honestly, i didn't really like it that much which is why I have been so down on re-writing this but now I'm excited because I'm finally writing something that I'm vaguely proud of! Anyway, sorry this chapter is so short. I'm in a bit of a rush and I did want to get something out before I had to leave. So enjoy, if anyone still reads this and please review! Thanks!_**

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The tension with Lily hadn't gotten any better. It was already Friday and they had yet to say one word to each other. Sure they had shared a number of looks, usually angry ones in the case of Lily, but that had been it. Hermione had spent as much time as humanly possible outside of her room and away from Lily. At meals, she sat far away from Lily and the group of Marauders, and the only times that she actually spoke to any of the guys was during lessons. And then they always had very little say.

She spent the majority of her extra time in the Library now, only leaving when the doors closed for the night, just as she had intended on doing when she arrived. It was working out quite well too. Not only was she getting ahead of herself on her studies, but she was also able to put more time towards her personal research and she avoided everyone else. Benjy and Caradoc hadn't tried to get her to meet up with them again. She still felt a bit guilty when she thought about them. She knew how rude it was to blow them off constantly and she knew that soon they would just give up on her, and that was her plan. It was for the best really. What was the use of getting attached to people who would be dead when she got back to her own time?

And so after a few days of serious thinking, she was sure that this whole thing with Lily was for the best. Like with Benjy and Caradoc, she didn't want to get attached only to be heart broken when she got back. She figured it was already going to be hard enough telling Harry and Ron about where she had been, she didn't want to be grieving while she told them. It would make answering questions too difficult.

"Hi," said a figure behind her.

So lost in her thoughts, Hermione physically jumped at the sound. She turned around in her chair and smiled when she saw it was Remus.

"I'm so sorry, I didn't mean to frighten you." He apologized quickly.

"It's fine, I just wasn't expecting you. Obviously." She half smiled and pulled out the seat next to her, "You can sit down if you want."

Remus smiled and took the seat that was offered. He looked vaguely uncomfortable to be sitting there with her and she didn't blame him. The fight between her and Lily had made everything extremely uncomfortable. She was surprised that Remus had even approached her, especially after not speaking to her for the past few days.

They sat in silence for a few moments. Hermione tried to think of something to say to break the silence but decided that it would be best to just wait for Remus to get what he needed to off of his chest. He looked almost in pain as he sat there, looking for the right words. Hermione wished that she could help him out, but there wasn't anything she could say. He was the one that had approached her and therefore he was the one that was obligated to begin the conversation. Besides, Hermione had never been much of a social butterfly and days of hardly speaking to anyone had dried up her social skills. Even if she wanted to she wouldn't be able to think of anything to say.

"How are you?" Remus finally managed to say.

"I'm fine," she lied. "And you?"

"Oh, great. I'm great."

"Good."

A few more moments of silence passed before Hermione said, "I'm surprised you're talking to me. I'm sure Lily wouldn't be too happy if she found out."

Remus did his best to smile. "Probably not. She's been more uptight than usual lately. What happened with you two?"

"Just girl stuff," Hermione lied, "I'm not exactly the easiest roommate to have."

Remus nodded his head as though he got the point. " Your eye is looking better."

"Thanks." And after even more awkward silence, "Is there something that you wanted, Remus?"

The question must have caught him off guard because it took him a few moments to figure out how to respond, "Not exactly. I, well, I just hadn't talked to you lately. I wanted to make sure that you were alright."

Hermione smiled. " Well thanks, I appreciate that Remus. But you should probably get going. I'm meeting up with Severus tonight and he should be here any second."

"Oh, ok. Goodnight Hermione."

"Goodnight Remus."

She watched as Remus got up and walked away and was saddened. Remus was the one person here that she felt she could honestly be friends with. After all, he would still be there when she got back and he had always been quite a nice man. She wouldn't mind having someone to share her memories of this time with. After getting the cold shoulder the past couple of days, Hermione thought that any chance of finding friendship in this time was gone. However it seemed as though Remus wasn't about to give up on her just yet.

She wished that Remus could have stayed, but she honestly did have an appointment with Severus. Apparently tonight, they were actually going to have a real conversation about the project. It was going to be interesting, their relationship had been even more strained since the two incidents. Lucky for Severus, his bruises had healed quickly while Hermione was suffering with a wound that kept re-opening every time her eyes widened. She had hoped that eventually things with Severus would cool down and they could at least be civil to each other, but it didn't look as though that would be any sort of option.

"Found a potion yet?"

Her wound split open when Severus came up behind her. "Damnit," she cursed as her hand moved to her eye to check to see if she was bleeding. "Must you sneak up on me like that every time?"

Severus' smirk was all the answer that she received and she was unable to reciprocate with a glare what with her eye out of commission.

"No, I haven't found anything yet." She spat at him.

Now that they had their topic figured out and a good amount of background research done, they were beginning to look at possible practical applications. They had both agreed that in order to receive the best possible grade, making a potion that had been created by their subject would be a good idea. Now they just had to find a potion that wasn't too immersed in the Dark Arts which was turning out to be quite a challenge.

Truthfully, Hermione had been looking less for a potion for their project and more for a potion that could possibly get her home. Now if the potion that could get her home just happened to be one that they could use in their project than fantastic, otherwise she was pretty sure Severus could handle the potion finding on his own.

"You understand that if you continue to be so useless, I'll inform Professor Slughorn." Snape snarled at her.

"Well have you found anything yet, Snape?"

Snape glowered at her as he sat down and growled a, "No."

Hermione, feeling quite satisfied with herself, turned her attention back to her book. She had taken it from the restricted section earlier in the week and this was the first chance she had to look through it. It was an in depth study of some of the darker potions, a few that Kruger had discovered. All she had gotten through so far was the table of contents and they didn't seem too promising. Hermione cringed as she read over some of the names such as "The Eternal Nightmare," "Blood Curdling Potion," and "Muggle Rot."

"Every potion in here lists at least one bit of muggle in the list of ingredients," Hermione sighed, "We're never going to find a ministry approved potion that involved Kruger, Severus."

"Obviously," Severus sneered as he slid over the book he had been reading, "you are not looking hard enough. In addition to murdering muggles and putting their mutilated body parts into potions, Kruger also enjoyed gardening. The project will be simple. We will grow plants the normal way, and then grow some using the potion and show the results and no muggles will be harmed in the process."

Hermione looked over the potion. Severus was right The potion was going to be pretty simple. Every ingredient listed was approved by the ministry and the potion would take less than two days to create. While Hermione usually would never go for something that presented so little a challenge, she was grateful that they found an option that required so few hours spent together.

She and Severus spent the rest of the evening discussing the logistics of the potion, as in what plants they would choose, how much of the potion they should make, and when to start growing everything. It was dinner by the time they finished but Hermione decided to stay behind while Severus left for the Great Hall. She picked up the book she had started out with and kept looking. Eventually while reading the ingredients and directions for a potion named "The Time Bender", she came across a reference to a journal that Kruger had read that had been written by a man named Jeremy Shatner. It said that by combining the aforementioned potion with the spell in the journal, anyone would be able to travel throughout time. Hermione smiled as she wrote down the names and began searching through the stacks of books once again.

An hour and a half later, Hermione returned to her desk frowning. There was nothing, not one thing in the entire library that even hinted that a man named Jeremy Shatner had ever existed. Not even the restricted section had anything to offer, which was rare. Obviously this wizard had remained unimportant, or he was just that dark. Either way, that didn't change the fact that he was the first solid lead that Hermione had ever had when it came to going home and she was not going to let this opportunity pass her by without trying. She decided that she would go to Dumbledore and ask for help once again.

She felt like a burden asking him for help so often but there wasn't much else she could do. Dumbledore was the most powerful and most connected wizard that she knew and if anyone was going to be able to help her find that journal, it was going to be him. Hermione packed up her things, deciding that she would go to Dumbledore immediately.

However when Hermione got passed the stone gargoyle she noticed a sign on the door stating that the Headmaster was currently out of the school but that he would be back shortly. Never one to just give up and go home, Hermione sat down on top of the stone steps and waited. The note said that he would be back shortly so she thought it best to just wait. She pulled out one of her books, found a comfortable position up against the door and began to read. After all, the note said that he would be back shortly, how long could he take?


	15. Chapter 15

**_HI! Yes, that's right, I'm posting AGAIN! Who would have ever thought :) anyway here is the new chapter. I hope you're not disappointed. I know I had fun writing it. You know, I can't believe I forgot how much fun writing was :) Oh, I'm glad I'm back! Anyway, as I said, here's the new chapter and I hope you enjoy. Please, please review! I love hearing from you guys :)_**

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The next thing Hermione was aware of was falling suddenly backwards and landing, quite hard, in the Headmasters office. Pain shot through the back of her head as she lay there staring up at Dumbledore who was finding it difficult to keep a grin off of his face.

"Good evening, Miss Granger. Might I ask why you have fallen asleep against my door?" Dumbledore asked as he offered her a hand up.

Hermione took his hand and managed to right herself. "Sorry Professor, I didn't mean to fall asleep. The sign on your door said that you were going to be right back and I have something very important to talk to you about."

"And what might that be Miss Granger?"

Dumbledore guided her into his office and offered her the seat in front of his desk. After she had declined the offered sweet she said, "Well sir, I found a very credible reference to a journal that I'm almost convinced will have a spell that, with the proper potion, will be able to take me home."

"Ah, I see, that is important news. And who might be the owner of this journal?"

Hermione hesitated a moment before answering, "Jeremy Shatner, Sir. I tried to look him up in the library but I couldn't find anything about him. Have you ever heard of him before?"

Dumbledore nodded glumly, "Yes I have. He disappeared 150 years ago during a Ministry raid on his house. He was one of the darker wizards of his day and the Ministry were very meticulous in erasing all evidence that he existed which is why you were unable to find him mentioned anywhere. You say the spell was written down in his journal?"

"Yes Sir," Hermione responded with fleeing hope.

"Well Miss Granger, I have reason to believe that the ministry may still be holding his journal in their possession and I may be able to recover that specific piece for you however, I must warn you. Any spell dictated in that book is very likely going to require use of the dark arts and without the proper knowledge, performing a spell like that could have disastrous results."

Hermione's hope was now gone. "So you are saying that even with access to the spell I wouldn't be able to perform it without first learning the dark arts which I know absolutely nothing about. Well, I guess I should start looking again."

"You are right; you cannot attempt this spell without first practicing the dark arts however I never said that was not an option. If you practice inside the school grounds than you cannot get into trouble with the ministry and I am aware that you have been thrown together quite a bit with a student in this castle who would be an excellent tutor. Perhaps if given the right incentive, Severus would not mind helping you."

Hermione's eyes widened at the name, "Snape? Sir, please, you must be joking. Snape would never help me, he despises me!"

She noticed an odd twinkle behind Dumbledore's eye as he said, "Everyone can be persuaded Miss Granger. Now if that is all, you may go back to your dorm. I will contact the ministry and do what I can to get you that spell and I will let you know soon about your tutor."

Hermione said her thank you's as she stood up and left the office. She checked her watch as she passed by the stone gargoyle and was surprised at the time. What in the world had Dumbledore been doing out until two in the morning? It was way past curfew as she passed through the hallways thankful that she wouldn't be getting into trouble. Living with the Head Girl and Head Boy had its share of perks.

Lily wasn't in the room when she got back to the dorm which wasn't surprising. She was probably off somewhere trying to permanently attach herself to James' face. Hermione took her time getting ready for bed, reviling in calm and quiet atmosphere of the room. It had been a long day and she was glad that soon it would be over.

As she lay down in bed and tried to fall asleep, she went over her talk with Dumbledore in her head. To think that he had even suggested she partner up with Snape! She prayed that he was able to find someone more skilled in the dark arts to help her along, someone who wouldn't try to figure out a way to murder her during lessons and make it look like an accident. Then again she wasn't too sold on the idea of learning anything about the dark arts. That had always been the one subject that she wasn't allowed to look into and she hated that it was the only way to get her home. Silently, she cursed all of the good wizards for never looking into time travel more in this time. Maybe then she could be going home within a couple of weeks.

,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.

"Hermione? Are you in there? Are you still asleep?"

"Oi! Wake up already! You've missed breakfast and if you don't hurry you're going to be late for class!"

"I don't think she's in there Ron," Harry told his friend, "maybe she got an early start and we just missed her at breakfast."

Ron continued to bang on the door to the Head Girls room. "But we've already checked the library and she's not in there and classes won't start for another hour so where else would she be? Besides, I left my herbology essay in her room last night and if she doesn't open up the door I'm going to get in trouble."

Harry and Ron had been banging on the door for ten minutes already and Harry was starting to worry. Ron was right, if she wasn't in the library or at breakfast then she should have been in here. They'd almost run into Ernie, the Head Boy, on their way in and he had mentioned that he hadn't seen her since the night before.

It was strange. Usually Hermione was the one bothering them to wake up in the morning not the other way around. "Maybe she's not feeling well Ron. We should let her sleep. If she's not in class then we can come back and try to bother her again, alright?"

It didn't take long for Ron to agree and soon they were back to wandering the hallways.

"I wish we hadn't woken up so early, bloody Seamus and his snoring."

Harry laughed, "It's not his fault. Besides he bought us all ear plugs after we threatened to hex his nose off. Why didn't you use them?"

"They don't fit," Ron whined, "I think my ears are too small."

Smiling, Harry said, "Or too big."

Ron punched him playfully on the arm as they walked down the hallways together, trying to kill time before class. They decided to check the library one more time for Hermione and again couldn't find her. Then they also checked around the usual places in the castle that she liked to hide and still nothing. Convincing themselves that she was indeed sleeping, they went to class.

Defense Against The Dark Arts went by slowly. Normally one of their favorite classes, Harry and Ron spent the entire time wondering where their friend was. It wasn't like her to miss a class, not even if she was sick. And anyway, they had already checked the hospital wing for her. There was still a bit of time before they needed to be at their next class and so they went back up to the Head Girls room to check for her one more time and when she still didn't answer, they went to Professor McGonagall to ask for some help.

She was sitting behind her desk when they walked into the classroom. "Professor," Harry called as he walked across the room, "we think something's wrong with Hermione."

McGonagall hardly looked up from the papers she was grading as she said, "What would lead you to think that Mr. Potter?"

"We can't find her. She wasn't at breakfast, or at the library, or at class this morning. And when we knocked on her door this morning she didn't answer. She didn't even yell at us to go away. We think that she might be sick in her room and we were wondering if you could go and check up on her."

McGonagall studied the two boys for a moment or two before putting the papers she had been grading into her desk and locking them away. She then followed the two boys up to the Head Girls room. Before just barging in, McGonagall knocked on the door and called out for Hermione a few times. When she didn't hear any response or any movement behind the door, she pulled out her key and opened the door.

"Are you sure you boys searched the entire castle?" She asked as she walked into the room.

It was empty. "You must have missed her somewhere in the castle. Now I do not think Miss Granger would appreciate us breaking into her room like this so come on, get out."

Harry and Ron where stunned when they saw that Hermione wasn't in her room. They honestly had checked everywhere that she would have been. But if she wasn't here, then where was she? Harry was about to leave with the other two when he noticed something as he turned. Her school books where still on the desk. And upon taking a closer look, he noticed that her bag was sitting next to her desk as well. Now, that just didn't make sense. Why would Hermione leave her books and her bags and pretty much everything else she used for the day and then just skip classes? Something was wrong, Harry could feel it.

"Professor, Hermione left all of her things! Look, her books and her bag and her homework are all still where she left them last night." Harry half shouted as McGonagall was trying to push him out the door. "Something's wrong!"

"Mr. Potter, I am sure that there are a number of reasons why Miss Granger would have left her things in her room. Now if Miss Granger does not appear by dinner tonight, then you may go to the headmaster to report her missing, but until then I suggest you continue to search. The castle is big, perhaps you missed something."

Harry and Ron both looked like they were going to try and protest some more as she shoved them out of the portrait guarding the Head Rooms but mercifully they seemed to change their minds. As Minerva watched them walk away glumly she said a silent prayer to herself before rushing off to Albus' office.

She spat out the password and complained loudly about how slow the gargoyle seemed to be moving lately before running up the stairs. Without knocking she entered Albus' office and very quickly announced, "It has happened."


	16. Chapter 16

**_So tonight I am sorry for three things. 1. That this chapter is so short. 2. That this chapter feels a little rushed/forced 3. That it took so long to update. I just got a new laptop about a month and a half ago and two and a half weeks ago it decided to have a 'freak accident' at least that's what the guy at geek squad said. But essentially it rendered my power button useless so I couldn't turn my computer on. Anyway, I took it to the store and they had to send it to freaking kentucky to get one little piece fixed and I just got my computer back a couple days ago. So that is why this took so long. I wasn't being lazy, I wasn't forgetting, I just didn't have access to the story. But anyway, here's the latest chapter. Now I'm off to work. So please read and review! I love hearing from you guys :)_**

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Albus Dumbledore had been thinking about this meeting for a long time. Hermione had warned him that she'd had great friends here and should she be gone for any amount of time, they would ask about her. So he'd had time to think about what he would say once Harry and Ron discovered her missing. He'd thought up many excuses, quite a few stories, and a number of believable lies. However now that he was sitting across from their worried faces, he realized that perhaps the truth was not so horrible.

"Before I begin, I want to tell you that Hermione is quite safe. However, it seems as though last night there was an incident with her time turner and somehow it threw her back twenty years. Right now she is taking her seventh year in 1976."

The two boys looked at him for a moment as though they expected him to smile and shout, "Kidding!" at any moment. But as Albus stayed silent, there expressions changed.

"You're not joking are you?" Harry asked.

"No Harry. Hermione is indeed in the past."

Ron's face fell as he asked, "Is she coming back?"

At this point, Albus hesitated because he wasn't quite sure how he wanted to answer that. However after a moment of thinking, he decided once again to go with the absolute truth.

"An attempt was made; however it is not yet certain whether or not it was successful."

"But when will we know?" asked Harry.

"I'm not sure. She could arrive back tomorrow or in two months time. The magic that was used to bring her back was not exact. However I want to warn you that when she does come back, she will not be returning to school. Hermione has already completed her seventh year as well as her exams and she will have changed. When she comes back she will have spent many months in the company of people she should never have met, including your parents Harry."

It seemed to take a moment for Harry to process this information. Albus watched as his face changed from disbelief to confusion and finally settling on anger.

"You're lying," he shouted, "this isn't possible! There is no way that Hermione got sent back to go to school with my parents. It just doesn't make sense! I don't believe you."

Albus had figured that at some point in this conversation, he would have to prove himself. So he pulled out an old and worn picture from the depths of his robe and handed it over to the irate boy.

Harry stared at it for a moment, not quite believing what he saw. And then he stood up and ran out of the office. Albus swore he heard Harry whisper, "It's not fair," before leaving. And he agreed. It wasn't fair. A few moments passed before Ron got up slowly and asked politely, "I guess you will tell us when she comes back?"

With a soft smile, Albus nodded. Ron left quietly after that and he was left alone once more in his office. He honestly hadn't expected that meeting to go so well. He knew it was going to be hard for Harry to hear that his best friend was getting the chance to get to know his parents. He half expected Minverva to bring Harry back to his office within the next few days for tampering with a time turner. The boy was so desperate to meet his parents that Albus knew he would try anything.

But Harry had been dealt with, for now at least. Now Albus had to inform the rest of the staff about Hermione's absence. This had been the meeting that Albus had truly been dreading. He'd only had to tell Harry that his best friend was missing, but now he was going to have to tell two members of his staff that the child they had been teaching was really their close friend from twenty years ago.

It was going to be a long evening.

Friday October 8th, 1976

It had been a week since Hermione had gone to Dumbledore with her plan and so far she'd heard nothing. She had tried to visit his office twice to check in with him but he never seemed to be inside the castle these days and she was beginning to get frustrated. If this plan wasn't going to work out then she needed to know so that she could start looking for another solution.

Since the meeting, Hermione hadn't put much faith in the plan. Any plan that involved even the smallest ounce of cooperation from Snape meant that the odds were against it. His usual surly mood had gotten worse over the previous week. When she went to work with him for Slughorn, he kept 'accidently' knocking over her cauldron and spilling her ingredients everywhere and making it impossible for her to actually accomplish anything. Honestly, she was seriously considering just depositing the money she currently had into the bank and paying back Dumbledore when she got back. Surely the accumulated interest over the next twenty years would be more than enough.

And when they had gotten together to work on their project, he'd been more bossy than usual. It was getting ridiculous. It was as though she was not longer allowed to speak or have an idea in his presence. She didn't know what she had done to cause such an incredible change in mood. It wasn't as though the Marauders had done anything to him recently. They were still serving detention and had very little free time to torture him with. Besides she still wasn't quite on speaking terms with them so it wasn't as though they had done anything to Snape on her behalf.

That night it was peaceful in the common room. It was only her and lily sitting in icy silence on opposite sides of the room and she didn't expect anything to change. Remus had been missing from his classes for the entire day and no one seemed ready to offer any decent explanations so Hermione had taken the liberty of checking which phase the moon was in that night. And now the moon was out, as were the rest of the boys.

She wished they had been here though. Then they could have distracted Lily from focusing all of her anger right at Hermione. She didn't quite understand this. She didn't know where all of this anger was coming from. Yes, the Marauders had gotten into trouble by 'defending her honor' but she hadn't had any control over that. Besides that had been weeks ago and she had expected for Lily to have gotten over that by now.

It was always awkward in the dorm now. Lily refused to speak to her or even really acknowledge that she was in the room. The boys weren't sure whether or not they were 'allowed' to talk to her so any conversation with them was very quick and uncomfortable. The only real communication she had with anyone was with Severus and that was just pathetic.

When she got her she hadn't really wanted to make friends with anyone knowing that it would make it that much more difficult to leave but not having anyone to talk to was starting to wear. She missed Harry and Ron more every had and had even taken to writing them letters. Whether or not she would try to get the letters to them was something that she had been trying to decide. It's not as though it would be difficult. All she would have to do is leave them with Dumbledore and he could hand the letters to them in twenty years. But did she want him to?

She was actually in the middle of writing a letter to Harry when someone walked up behind her chair and asked, "Who's Harry?"

Hermione jumped in her seat and everything that had been in her lap fell to the floor. She looked up in shock at Lily and managed to mumble, "Just a friend," as she bent down to scoop up the things from the floor.

"Boyfriend?"

Hermione shook her head, "More like a brother."

"Oh," Lily half smiled as she took a seat on the couch next to Hermione's chair.

"I'm sorry I scared you like that. I thought you noticed when I got up."

Hermione half smiled and shook her head. "I guess I was concentrating too hard."

Lily smiled a bit too before frowning once again. "I just wanted to say I'm sorry Hermione. I know I've been incredibly rude to you lately. And I'm sorry for what I said a couple weeks ago. I shouldn't have yelled at you like that."

"That's ok," Hermione began before she was cut off.

"No, no it's not." Lily continued, "I was jealous. For about five years I've sort of been the only girl in the boy's little group and I when you arrived and they all started fawning over you I got jealous and I shouldn't have. And I shouldn't have taken it all out on you."

"So," Hermione began not quite sure of what to say, "does that mean we're going to be friends again?"

"Well, I hope so. That is, if you'll forgive me."

Finally smiling Hermione said, "Of course."

Glad that all of the tension was over, Hermione picked up her quill and continued on with the letter while Lily continued to sit next to her.

"You know, I've always liked the name Harry. I think if I ever had a kid, that's what I'd name him."

Trying not to laugh, Hermione answered, "I'm sure my friend Harry would be very flattered to hear that."

The rest of the evening went by well. Hermione and Lily chatted for the rest of the night and stayed up late. Hermione was careful not to ask any questions about where the boys might be. She already knew and she didn't see any reason to make Lily lie. She did however ask what her plans for Hogsemead e trip the next day were and was quite pleased when she was invited along with Lily and the boys, minus Remus of course who had some extra credit to work on. After such a long week, Hermione was pleased that things were relatively back to normal. So that night, after a long night of talking and eating more chocolate than she'd ever before consumed, she fell asleep finally hopeful that everything would indeed work out alright.


	17. Chapter 17

**_*hides* My excuse this time? I've been working 50 hour weeks at work and I've recently become obsessed with LOTRO. Sorry. _**

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October 23rd, 1996

Remus hadn't left his room since the staff meeting the day before. He'd spent the entire time looking at mementos from his school days and specifically from his seventh year. For the first time in years he'd taken out an old chess set that he and his school mates had played on. The pieces were chipped from almost constant use and the color on the chess board was faded, and in some places, was gone completely. It had been years since he had looked at his chess board but right now he was feeling nostalgic.

He was feeling a special kind of pain right now. He didn't want to cry and he wasn't exactly upset but he was hurting. He'd just found out that one of his best friends wasn't gone. In fact, she had been sitting in his class room right in front of him and he'd never noticed. Yes, he had seen a resemblance between the girl he had known and the girl he taught but he'd figured that she was just a distant relative or perhaps fate was trying to play yet another cruel trick on him.

He'd never expected to ever hear what he heard last night. It was as though he had gotten his friend back and lost her once again all at the same time. The next time he saw her it would be wonderful. He would have one of his best friends back. However there was no knowing whether or not she would even be coming back. Albus had given him the details that he'd left out years ago and from what he could tell, there was no knowing if what they had tried was going to work. They would now all have to wait.

He stared once again at the picture in his hand. In it a younger him was smiling awkwardly as the girl who had captured his heart slept dreamily on his shoulder, unaware that a picture was even being taken. And as he stared he wondered, just briefly, how Severus was doing.

...

Severus stayed clam throughout the entire meeting with Dumbledore. He stayed clam as he grabbed his broom and left his chambers. He stayed calm as he walked through the castle. When two first years accidentally bumped into him in the hall and nearly wet themselves, he stayed calm. He stayed calm as he walked through the grounds. He stayed calm until he got to the gate into the school. Then Severus mounted his broom and once he was ten feet in the air, set fire to every tree within thirty feet.

Severus Snape was not seen at Hogwarts for two weeks.

October 21st, 1976

"I'm not going to do that Sirius."

"Why not? It usually works for me," Sirius smirked.

James laughed, "Yeah, and when it doesn't you end up in need of a nurse. Remember how long it took for the swelling to go down last time you tried that?"

"That was just an honest mistake," Sirius snarled, "I had already dated that twin. I thought I was kissing her sister."

"My point is," Remus continued, "you can't just walk up to a girl and start kissing her. That's not the proper way to go about things."

"You have to do something though, Remus. Honestly, you talk about her enough and Merlin knows you spend enough time with her. It's about time you did something about it."

It was true. Remus had been spending a fair amount of time with Hermione lately. And he did fancy her quite a bit and sometimes when he let his mind wander, he thought about how nice it would be to hold her hand and steal kisses in the hallway. But he knew it would never be anything more than a fantasy. He could never, in good conscience, date a girl who didn't know about his condition and any girl who knew about his condition would never want to date him.

Which was why conversations like this one bothered him. His friends knew his feelings about dating. They knew it would be next to impossible to find a girl who would be comfortable with what he was, and yet they insisted that he chase after every girl that he gave a second look.

"You know why I can't James." Remus answered growing angry, "I'm not going to lie to her and I'm not going to tel her the truth. Things are fine the way they are. And I'm tired of you three bringing this up."

The anger that was beginning to radiate from Remus cause an awkward silence with the group. It wasn't usual that something like that lasted around the boys and this time was no difference. Not thirty seconds later, a faint buzzing noise was heard coming from somewhere in the room.

"Oh Merlin!" Sirius exclaimed, "Who had the beans for lunch!"

"That's horrible!" Peter squeaked as he grabbed a pillow to shove over his face.

Remus hid his nose and mouth within his shirt so that his eyes were able to glare at James.

"You couldn't have kept that to yourself?"

"What?" James asked innocently, "I don't smell anything."

Remus rolled his eyes, grabbed his wand, and uttered an air freshening charm. They didn't mention Hermione for the rest of the afternoon.

…...

"I've asked you both to my office to to discuss an extra credit program that the Ministry would like to test out here at Hogwarts."

Hermione breathed a sigh of relief when she heard Dumbledore begin that way. When she and Snape had been called into his office, she was worried that perhaps there bickering had gone too far and Slughorn had said something.

"The Ministry has asked me to pick two or three of my more promising and trusted students to test out a new program focusing on the dark arts. Now, before you begin asking questions, the ministry has informed me that they have reason to believe that having a basic knowledge of the dark arts can make a witch or wizard more proficient at defense against the dark arts. If you agree, then the two of you would have supervised lessons once or twice a week, studying basic dark arts theory and some practical applications.

The ministry has given me strict instructions on what you are and are not to be taught. If you do agree, then the Ministry will give you a certificate of some sort and of course you would be earning extra credit in your defense against the dark arts classes. Also, if either one of you were ever considering a career within the Ministry once you leave Hogwarts, this would certainly be an excellent way of getting yourself in the door, provided you both don't fail miserably. I will give you both a day to think about this.

Of course I understand that adding this on top of your class work as well as your after school assisting would be a challenge. So if you do choose to participate in this program, you will be given a scholarship that would replace what you are getting now for assisting Professor Slughorn and you would no longer need to assist him. I ask that the both of you return to my office tomorrow evening after dinner to tell me what you have decided."

Hermione and Snape said goodnight to the Headmaster and walked silently out of his office. She had realized halfway through the meeting that this all had to be Dumbledore's idea. Whether the Ministry was actually going to be involved in all of this she had no idea, and she honestly didn't care. All that mattered now was for Snape to agree. He was the only one on school grounds that would be qualified enough to teach her and there was obviously no other way to get him to agree to do it.

Under normal circumstances Hermione would have never tried to learn about any part of the Dark Arts strictly on principle. Of course she had always been curious about them, and had even checked out a beginners guide at the library at the beginning of the term, but she was never going to open it. She was a good witch, and good witches didn't mess with that sort of thing. But she couldn't help her natural curiosity and desire to know everything there was to know and so the though that she was going to be able to learn a previously restricted subject with the permission of Dumbledore was thrilling.

But there was still one thing in her way.

Snape.


	18. Chapter 18

_**Woo! Two chapters in one week :) Anyone else impressed? Please read and review! Thanks guys :)**_

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That night Hermione sat in the common room with Remus and Peter. Lily and James were out celebrating their official one week anniversary by double dating with Sirius and whatever poor girl he had gotten to go out with him.

It was a nice, quiet evening. Her and Remus were both sitting on the couch studying, while Peter had fallen asleep in front of the fire, a half eaten chocolate still hanging out of his mouth. Hermione and Remus had already made a bet guessing how long it would take for Peter to choke on the chocolate. Peter had five more minutes to start choking before Hermione lost her last chocolate frog.

Once Peter began snoring, Hermione and Remus abandoned their books and watched as the chocolate was sucked in and out of Peter's mouth as he breathed.

"One loud snore and that chocolate frog is mine Remus!" Hermione whispered triumphantly.

"I'm not so sure," Remus answered, "it looks like the breathing it in and out thing is starting to wear the chocolate down. He might finish it soon."

"He better not!"

They both laughed as the fire cracked softly in the background. It had been a long day for the both of them. But Hermione realized that whenever she spent time with Remus, all of her thoughts calmed down and her mind stopped racing. She could concentrate better and the sense of urgency she usually carried around with her all day was gone and she could just sit, and relax, and be calm.

She hoped that she did the same sort of thing for Remus, especially right now. The full moon was in a couple of days and he was already looking more worn than usual. The bags under his eyes were hanging low and his skin was even paler than usual.

"I wish you were going to be able to come with us to Hogsmeade this weekend. It's always more fun when you are there."

Caught slighly off guard by the statement, Remus recovered quickly, "Well, you know, I just have so much school work that I need to catch up on, I don't think I could possibly take a break."

"Don't worry, I understand," Hermione smiled, "plus I doubt it would be easy going to Hogsmeade the day of a full moon."

"What?" Remus asked quickly, wondering if he had heard her right.

Not quite realizing what she had just said, she turned to look at him as she answered, "You know, saturday night is a full..."

The moment she looked at his face it hit her what she had just said. Remus was as white as a sheet and she had never seen him look so freaked out.

"...moon."

An awkward silence fell over the two of them, and now every snore that came out of Peter seemed to make everything worse. They stared at each other as the silence grew heavier and heavier, neither of them really knowing what to say. Hermione was oddly lost for words and Remus seemed to frightened to even try to say anything.

Remus finally broke eye contact a minute later and quickly started packing up his things.

"It's getting late," he muttered, "I should be going."

"Oh, um, ok," Hermione answered lamely, "do you want me to help you get your things?"

"No, no, I'm fine."

Remus had left half his books on the table and he hadn't even taken time to latch his bag up properly or sling it over his shoulder. He tripped over his own feet in his rush to get out of the common room. He muttered what Hermione thought was a goodbye when he was halfway out the door.

She then grabbed one of the pillows behind her back, placed it over her face, and screamed.

Which was apparently enough to wake Peter up. He bolted upright, inhaling the half a chocolate that was still in his mouth, and began choking. Hermione got up to help him and muttered pathetically to herself, "Well, I guess I won."

…...

"She knows," Remus muttered miserably from his bed the next afternoon. "How in the world could she know? Do you think Lily told her?"

"Not a chance," Sirius answered, "she's way to loyal to do something like that."

Groaning, Remus rolled over and put a pillow over his face.

"I don't know why you're freaking out so much about this mate," said James joyfully, " this is a good thing. She knows! Now you can snog her and not feel bad about it."

"I'm not sure if that's what he's moaning about James, there is a full moon tomorrow night."

"It's actually a little bit of both," muttered Remus, his voice muffled by the pillow over his face. "And I'm not going to snog her just because she knows. She'd probably be grossed out snogging a werewolf and I'm not going to let her pity snog me."

"Oi! You're underestimating the value of a pity snot my friend," answered Sirius, "pity snogs can be some of the best. Besides, pity snogs can lead to pity everything else. It's amazing how much farther a girl will let you go when she feels bad for you."

"When has any girl ever pitied you?"

"Well there was that one time when I almost failed out of my fifth year because I broke my arm from falling down the stairs while I was rushing to help my grandfather who was choking."

"But that never happened," James smiled.

"Maybe not," Sirius smiled back, " But that story and a quick glamour charm have helped me get pity snogged for two years."

"No wonder you get slapped in the hallway," Remus laughed slightly.

At that moment, Peter walked in. He was always running a little big slower than everyone else.

"Remus, Hermione says you owe her a chocolate frog." He announced as he walked in.

Remus answered with nothing but a groan as he sank deeper into his blankets.

"Oh stop acting like such a girl," James groaned, " you like her yes? And now she knows about you, right? Which was the one thing you said was standing in the way of you snogging her, correct? So just go out and snog her!"

"I can't just go out and snog her!" Remus half shouted, "and I'm not going to ask her out. I don't like pity. Besides, she probably doesn't want to talk to me anymore."

"Why wouldn't she want to talk to you," Peter asked.

"Because she knows about me."

"So?" Asked Peter, still confused.

"So, she's probably freaked out by me and doesn't want to see me anymore."

"But that doesn't make sense." Peter answered, "You didn't tell her anything, which means that she probably knew all last night, so if she was going to be freaked out by you and not want to talk to you, then she wouldn't have talked to you last night, right?"

Remus thought about that a moment and realized that Peter was right. However that did nothing to lighten his spirits. In fact, it only put him in a worse mood. He was quickly running out of excuses to not ask her out which to anyone else would have seemed like a good thing, but not to him.

He had never really dated anyone before and he most definitely had never snogged anyone before and he wasn't sure how to even go about all of that. He was terrified of being rejected and especially of losing a friend in the process. He wanted to be able to tell his friends that, but he couldn't. They just wouldn't understand. They'd tell him to get over it and just snog her anyway.

"Well that doesn't matter Peter, because I'm not going to snog her. It's just not going to happen."

"But why?" Exclaimed Sirius, "We know you like her, you certainly talk about her enough, and now the only thing that was stopping you before is gone, so what's stopping you now?"

"I don't want to talk about it!" Remus shouted.

He didn't normally shout, but it was almost the full moon and he was getting moody. Thankfully he had understanding friends who knew how and when to back off, at least forty percent of the time. He heard them all moving about, assuming they were about to leave. Thankful for their departure, Remus snuggled up farther into his blankets and was about to take a quick nap, when he felt someone by his ear.

"You know, if this is just because you don't really know how to snog someone properly, I could give you some tips," whispered Sirius as he patted Remus on the shoulder.

Before Remus could say anything, he heard James call from the door, "Oi! Sirius, leave him alone while he's in a mood."

"Fine, fine!"

Sirius backed away and left the room and Remus, glad to have some peace and quiet, quickly fell asleep.

Monday October 25th, 1976

He'd had a lot of time to think over the past couple days about what he was going to do about Hermione. He had talked to his friends a little bit more and he'd reluctantly gotten a few snogging tips from Sirius and he think he knew what he was going to do.

He hadn't actually seen Hermione since that night and he knew that this meeting was going to be a little bit awkward, so he had planned on talking to her on the way to breakfast before classes got started. He'd warned his friends about what he was going to do, so that they wouldn't barge in in the middle of their conversation. He hadn't told them what he was going to say because, honestly, he wasn't quite sure himself what he was going to say. Every few minutes he would change his mind, weigh the pro's and con's of what he was about to do, and talk himself out of it.

Honestly he was acting just like a girl, as Sirius had so nicely pointed out the day before. But he had never even come close to having this sort of a conversation with a girl before so he was bound to be nervous.

She was already siting at the breakfast table when he walked in. It was still a little early so the great hall was mostly empty which was good, he wanted as small of an audience as possible for this.

He walked up to her slowly, still not sure what exactly he was going to say. Still he sat down in the seat just across from her.

"Good morning, Hermione."


	19. Chapter 19

**_Hi *hides* I've got a chapter for you :) Please don't hate me. And review!_**

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"Good morning Remus."

He could see that she was uncomfortable, which was somewhat comforting because he was feeling a bit uncomfortable as well. He'd never had a conversation like this before. He wasn't exactly sure where to begin.

"Ho-How are you this morning?" He asked quietly.

"I'm ok," she answered with a vague smile. "How are you?"

"I'm alright, thank you." He answered back.

Now, he really did want to just come right out and say what he came to say, but he was finding that difficult. Every time he inhaled, he planned on exhaling those words but they just refused to come out. So they sat in silence for a few moments as he gathered his strength.

"Aren't you going to eat something?" Hermione asked as she pushed one half of a giant roll into her mouth.

Remus didn't answer, instead he closed his eyes, took a deep breath and asked, "How did you find out about me?"

He didn't look to see her reaction, and even though he did open his eyes, he kept them glued to the plate in front of him. She must have been surprised though, because she seemed to take a while to respond.

"I just sort of put the pieces together I guess. I mean, your excuses for not being around that time of the month were always sort of pathetic and then you always looked so beaten up afterwards. It didn't take long to realize that this was all happening during the full moon."

He wasn't quite sure what to say, he'd never really had this conversation before. When the others had found out they hadn't left much opportunity for conversation. They had been sitting in the common room one evening, and James had just come out and asked if he was a werewolf. Stunned, Remus had simply answered that yes, he was, and that was it. Lily had just hugged him for a very long time after she was told.

"I'm sorry Remus," Hermione continued after some silence, "i'm sure that was something that you wanted to keep a secret and I shouldn't have pried into your life like that. I just don't know when to keep my mouth shut sometimes. I know I should have waited until you felt comfortable enough to tell me."

This was it, Remus thought to himself, this was his chance. She had done a wonderful job setting this up for him and if it wouldn't have been so awkward, he would have hugged her.

Struggling to raise his voice above a whisper, he answered, "Actually I'm quite glad that you figured it out."

She slowly began to smile at him and lit up the room.

"I'm so glad you think so Remus. I was so worried this weekend that you would be angry with me."

"No, i'm not angry, not at all," he said again with a bit more confidence, "I don't think I could every really get angry at you."

Smiling even bigger, Hermione replied, "So we're alright?"

Remus nodded.

"Fantastic! I'm glad that we were able to clear this up, but I have to get to the library before class begins. Would you like to meet in the common room tonight to study?"

Hermione's sudden need to leave caught Remus by surprise, "Yeah, sure," was all he could answer as he watched her grab her back and start to walk away from the table.

She was gone before he could get another word out of his mouth. He cursed quietly to himself for letting that chance slip by. He thought briefly about chasing her down the hallway but he didn't want to make a fool of himself. Being rejected is one thing, being rejected after chasing someone down the hall and attracting wandering eyes is another thing entirely.

It was still pretty early in the morning, the others would just be waking up so Remus decided to stay where he was and he passed the time munching on a dry piece of toast while he waited for his friends.

…...

"So you gave up then?" Lily asked from across the table.

"No I didn't," Remus answered pathetically, "I just didn't get the chance."

"She's never going to give you the chance Remus. She doesn't know that she needs to. You just need to buck up, close your eyes, and blurt it out. That's what James did when he finally asked me out."

"Oi! I was much smoother than that, thank you very much." James protested.

Lily smiled and patted him on the head.

"Of course you were darling, of course you were."

"The way I see it Remus you have two choices," Sirius began, "you can either ask her out and possibly be rejected and have things be awkward for a couple of days, or you can continue to talk endlessly about her until one of us, probably me, bashes your head in."

Remus groaned into his oatmeal. They were right, he did need to do something but he wasn't sure what that was yet. He did fancy her quite a bit and he did sometimes daydream about what it would be like to snog her for the first time but was it worth the potential awkwardness? Could he even pluck up the courage to force the words out of his mouth?

"I think I'd rather not talk about this anymore if that's alright. I'm still not feeling very well."

And slowly the conversation turned towards exams and who had forgotten once again to do their homework. The rest of breakfast passed by uneventfully and as they all began to leave for their separate classes, Sirius leaned in and whispered, "I'll talk you up during potions."

Before Remus could say anything Sirius had gone. It became clear that even if he did decide to shut his mouth and do nothing about it, his friends might not let it go. And in that moment Remus decided, he was going to ask her out.

At some point. Perhaps.

…...

Hermione didn't go to dinner that night. Her stomach had been in knots ever since her last class had been let out. Tonight was going to be her first lesson in the dark arts. Surprisingly Snape had agreed to Dumbledore's offer and they were going to meet tonight in the room of requirement. It had seemed an odd choice at first to have the lessons, until Hermione remembered that these lessons were not ordained by the ministry and that, in fact, all three would get in trouble if the ministry were to find out what they were doing.

She arrived to find that Snape was already there, much to her surprise. He looked annoyed as though she had been keeping him waiting although she had gotten there five minutes early.

"I'm not late Snape, so don't even start."

Rolling his eyes he handed her some papers.

"Dumbledore gave me these. It's the theory behind the spell that we are supposed to practice at the end of the week. You should read it carefully, it's a rather tricky spell."

"I don't think I'll have much trouble, thank you." She spat as she grabbed the paper out of his hands. "I take it you've already read though the information then?"

"I perfected this spell in my second year. I'm already quite proficient in the Dark Arts, I don't need a course to teach me," Snape answered with just a dash of superiority in his voice.

"Then why in Merlin's name are you here?" Hermione asked, annoyed.

Snape sneered, "Being stuck here with you is better than being stuck with you and Slughorn. The man is unbearable."

Smiling faintly Hermione answered, "I think that's the first think you and I have ever agreed upon Snape. And I expect it will be the last."

"How about you shut your mouth and read. I'm going to have to quiz you later on to see if you remembered enough to properly preform the spell."

The rest of the night passed by quickly enough. She and Snape barely spoke to one another outside of the questions on the material and by the end Hermione felt confident enough to preform the spell. However she was glad that she was going to be given the next few days to prepare.

It was late when she got back to her rooms so she was surprised to see Remus in the common room, pacing back and forth in front of the fireplace. He must have been deep in thought when she came in, for when he looked up and saw her standing there, he jumped.

"I'm sorry Remus," she apologized, "I didn't mean to spook you like that. I didn't think anyone would still be in here."

"Tha-that's alright Her-hermi-hermione."

"Remus, why are you stuttering like that?"

"W-well, I'm just a b-bit nervous y-you see." He continued to stutter.

"Why are you nervous," She asked as she put her bag down on the chair and walked over to him. "Is something wrong? Did something happen? Are you feeling sick?"

She put up her hands as though she were about to guide him into a chair and he stopped her.

"No, I-I'm fine. There was just a-a qu-question I wanted to ask y-you."

"Alright," she answered as she sat down on the couch, "go ahead. You can ask me anything."

Remus continued to stand there for what seemed like an eternity. He fought the urge to being pacing again and instead focused all his nervous energy into his hands. He was wringing them together as though he was trying to squeeze all the blood from them. All he had to do was say those seven little words and all of this would be over. All he had to do was ask her one small question and he could relax again. He opened his mouth once or twice to begin but each time he found that nothing would come out.

What he must look like to her right now! Hands pawing at one another, beads of sweat developing on his forehead, his entire body turning as red as a turnip, he must look a mess!

So he took Lily's advice. Inhaling a long, deep breath, Remus shut his eyes and in one quick exhale he half shouted, "Hermione, will you go out with me?"

The seconds passed by like years. His heart was pounding in his ears and he found that he was unable to take a breath much less open his eyes to see her reaction. After what seemed to be an eternity Remus realized that she hadn't said a word so the only logical conclusion he could come to was that she was trying to think of a kind way to say no.

Slowly he began to breathe again. His hands untangled and his body relaxed once more before it began to stoop into that sad and lonely body posture that only comes to one who has recently been rejected.

And then finally, Remus opened his eyes, and what he saw surprised him.


	20. Chapter 20

**_Sorry this ends so abruptly but I have to get ready for work and I really wanted to get this out before I left. I'm not going to make any promises on how often I'm going to update now or anything, but aren't you proud that I got another chapter out so soon :) See, as long as it might take me to update sometimes, I'm never going to give up on this story. It will be finished. I just don't know when that'll be. Anyway, read, review, and enjoy!_**

* * *

It was the most beautiful smile he had ever seen.

"I'd like that very much Remus," she answered, "When?"

That last question had taken him by surprise. He hadn't really thought this far in advance. He had figured that he would ask her out, she'd turn him down, and possibly slap him for having the nerve to think she would do such a thing and then he would go to bed. He'd never given a single thought to what he would do if she said yes.

He looked around the room for a moment as though the clock on the mantle or the painting on the wall would give him the answer he was searching for.

"Friday night?"

"I can't on friday, I have a meeting with Snape. Perhaps saturday?"

"Saturday is the quidditch game," Remus answered glumly, "Sunday?"

Still smiling, Hermione answered, "Sunday would be perfect."

"Fantastic!" Remus exclaimed with a little too much enthusiasm.

His former nervousness was gone and instead had been replaced by a brand new sort of dread. It was then that he realized that asking her out _had_ been easy and that the difficult part was still to come. How was he supposed to act around her now? What was he supposed to say? They obviously weren't dating yet but she was now aware that he fancied her and they were going to go out on a date so he couldn't treat her as he normally did, but neither could he treat her like a girlfriend.

And now things were just growing awkward. His exclamation had rendered her speechless and the silence between them was getting louder and louder. He had to get out of there!

"Well," he coughed, "I think I should be getting to bed now. Goodnight!"

He didn't look at her again as he bolted out of the room. Truly that had been one of the best and most embarrassing experiences of his entire life, one that will surely be surpassed by his upcoming date.

'Merlin,' Remus thought to himself, 'what am I getting myself into?'

…...

"I think I should send Remus an owl and let him know that he doesn't have to go through with this date if he doesn't want to," Hermione thought out loud, "he hasn't spoken to me since monday and we're supposed to be going out tomorrow. I think he might regret it."

Lily laughed as she brushed out her hair, "He doesn't regret it Hermione, he's just nervous. He's been asking me questions about you all week. You were the first girl he's ever asked out and this will be his first date. He just wants everything to go well."

"I'm the first?" Hermione asked, surpised.

"Well, yeah," Lily answered, "You know what he is Hermione. He's not the sort of guy to ask someone out without them knowing, and seeing as how until recently I was the only one who knew, he never really had the chance. That doesn't bother you, does it?"

"No, no, of course not," she replied quickly.

But it did bother her slightly. She knew how important and special the first romance can be. She didn't want Remus to waste it on her like she had on Krum. He had been a very sweet man but she had known from the beginning that he would never be anyone special to her. And while she did fancy Remus she could never be someone special for him. She was going to leave, hopefully, at some point and go back to her own time and to her own much older Remus.

She should never have said yes to him, but she couldn't help herself. He was sweet and kind and handsome and to be honesty she had always had a bit of a crush on the older version. But he was a werewolf and she was from twenty years in the future. It was doomed.

Then again, Hermione figured that they would go out for a couple of weeks, perhaps even snog a few times and then it would be over. He would realize that she's a bit to crazy for him and she would come to her senses and let him go and things would go back to normal. Perhaps this was just something that the both of them needed to get out of their systems.

…...

"How am I supposed to take her out on a date when I can't even be in the same room with her!" Remus exclaimed into his pillow.

"I still say you should just walk up to her and snog her. I mean, she's already said yes to a date with you so she obviously doesn't mind the idea of potentially snogging at some point." Sirius answered unhelpfully.

"She could have said yes out of pity," Remus countered.

"I think you should stop worrying about all of this," James added, "you asked her out, she said yes, and the hard part is done. All you have to do is put together a picnic and I'll let you use my special spot near the lake for the night. Lily and I can just snog in her room."

"The hard part is not over James! I don't know what to do. I've tried going up and talking to her all week but I can't. I get all tongue tied and I can't breathe and I start to sweat. If I take her on a picnic we'll have to talk. I can't talk to her now, I'm too nervous."

"So just snog her!" Sirius shouted, "If you can't talk to her then just snog her. Problem solved. Can we go to practice now?"

"I can't even think about practice right now," Remus groaned. "This is going to be bad."

"Oi! That's it!" Sirius raged as he stood up.

He walked over to where Remus was lying on the bed, grabbed his arm, and stood him up. Putting his hands on either side of Remus' pathetic looking face, he continued to shout., "Remus! You've been whining about this for four days. I can't take it anymore! So here's how things are going to go. You're going to relax, realize that you found one of maybe ten girls in the entire world willing to date a werewolf, and be happy. You will take her to the lake, you will have a nice time, and you _will snog her!_ Again I'm here if you need tips. Now, cheer up, get ready, and let's go to practice!"

Quite unsure how to react to what had just happened to him, Remus nodded dumbly.

"Great, now come _on_!"

…...

"You need to concentrate more," snapped Snape, "the plate is hardly even warm."

"I _am_ concentrating," Hermione bit back, "I've just never done this spell before."

It was their first night attempting practical dark arts lessons. Obviously, snape was able to make his plate burst into flames within seconds. Hermione had been trying to do the same thing for an hour and a half and she'd barely managed to warm her plate. It was getting frustrating.

"This is one of the easiest spells to master Granger. If you cant even manage to do this, how do you expect to make it though this course?"

"Well perhaps if you just shut your trap for a minute I would be able to concentrate better. And I swear Snape, if you're not careful I'll set you on fire!"

That got him laughing as Hermione made another attempt. This time there was at least a bit of a spark.

"Well that was just pathetic," Snape continued, "The dark arts are mostly driven by anger and rage. Try thinking about something that makes you angry and then try the spell again."

'That shouldn't be to difficult,' Hermione thought to herself as she searched for a good enough memory. It's not as though there weren't enough to chose from. But she had to think about something that didn't just annoy her, but something that made her teeth clenching, punch a hole in the wall mad. And then she had it. The night of the Yule ball with Ron.

And as she remembered the awful details of that night, let the anger at his childish behavior fill her up once again, she muttered the spell and was rewarded by a burst of flame. Granted, it didn't last very long and once it left the plate was just barely scorched but still she had done it.

Smiling she looked over at Snape.

"I believe that may have been the first helpful thing you have ever done for anyone in your entire life. And didn't that feel good?"

Snape, just realizing what he had just done, sneered, "No."

Hermione was tired. She conjured up a stool and sat down for a quick breather. "You know Snape, these lessons would go a lot better if you stopped being suck a snarky bastard and acted like a real person for a moment."

"These lessons would go better if you weren't such an idiot," Snape bit back.

"I'm not an idiot," Hermione snapped, "I'm just a bit distracted that's all."

Snape rolled his eyes. "For Merlin's sake! All you have to do is keep your mind off of snogging Black for two minutes and then we can be done for tonight. You're not the only one with things to do."

"I'm not thinking about Sirius!" Hermione shouted, "And what things do you have to do anyone? Are there some first years that you're planning on torturing? Does your hair need to have its weekly greasing?"

For once, Snape actually smiled and it was quite disconcerting, "Good, now you're angry. Use it and cast the spell."

This time the spell worked perfectly. There was very little left of the plate when she was done and it almost looked as decimated as Snape's had. Relief washed over Hermione as she smiled to herself.

"Well it looks like you'll be back at your rooms in time to grease your hair."

"That was acceptable," he sneered, "you can go now."

As they were getting their things together and leaving, Snape said, "And you should stay away from Black if you know what's good for you."


	21. Chapter 21

**_So I'm stuck in a bit of a block. I know how I want to go forward with the story I'm just not sure how to properly write it. So I thought I'd give you a little snippet about what's going on in present day because I've wanted to write this particular scene out for a while. Don't ask me why, I just have. Anyway I hope you enjoy and I'll do my best to get another chapter out to you soon :)_**

* * *

"Does Dumbledore know you're back Severus?"

"Probably," Snape sneered as he shut the door and sat down on his couch.

Remus, smartly choosing not to take the seat next to Snape, instead sat on the chair opposite to the couch.

"We were all worried about you. It took two days to put the fire that you started out. No one believed that you were going to come back."

"Are you?"

"I would have been disappointed in you if you hadn't."

Silence fell over the pair. This was an odd meeting. While neither was comfortable admitting it, they were the only ones that understood what was going on. They had both been there, they had both known her, and now they were the only ones that either one could talk to.

"You can't hate Albus forever you know."

"Can't I?" Snape snarled.

"I cared about her too Severus, remember? And you don't see me running away. You need to man up and realize that Albus did what was best for everyone involved."

"You don't know what you're talking about Lupin. You don't know the things I promised to do for him to honour her. I was nothing more than a pawn in his never ending chess game with the Dark Lord. He never gave a damn what was best for us, or her, or anyone other than himself. He could have told us the truth after she left and yet he waited all these years. What would it have changed Remus? Nothing."

"Honestly Severus you sound like a petulant child!" Remus snapped, "I understand that you're hurt. I am too. But we can't change anything, just be grateful that we're getting her back."

"If the spell had gone right she would have been back by now. It was supposed to bring her back on the same day that she had left. She's dead. I've lost her again."

More calmly Remus began, "You don't know that Severus. There's still a chance. And not to be morbid, but if it does go wrong and she doesn't come back then it's not as though things around here will change. We wouldn't be losing her again, she'd just continue to be lost."

"Would you just shut up!" Severus screamed, "You bloody fool! You don't have the slightest idea what you are saying. You say you cared for her, like hell you did. If you had you wouldn't be able to sit here so calmly and talk as though it doesn't matter whether or not she comes back. If nothing has changed for you then you didn't care. You couldn't have."

Remus had put his head in his hands. Severus was in worse shape than he had thought. He understood feeling sad that they may never see her again but this, this was more than just despair over losing an old flame. This was deeper.

Remus lifted his head out of his hands and asked, "Severus, after all this time, do you still love her?"


	22. Chapter 22

**_So I've made a decision. I officially don't like to put a scene in the past in the same chapters as a scene in the present. I probably should have waited and attached this to the last chapter to make it longer but I didn't. Just know that I am working on another chapter and I have it almost done so that should be out soon :) Sorry for all the delays. Anyway, read and review :)_**

* * *

"Snape's back. Did you hear?" Ron asked as he sat down next to Harry on the couch in the common room.

"Yeah Ron, I heard."

"I wonder what happened to make him go mental like that. You don't think it could've had anything to do with Hermione going missing, do you?"

"I doubt it," Harry answered, "why would Snape care about Hermione? And don't forget, we're supposed to say that she's with her parents."

"Right, right."

There was a long pause as they both stared into the fireplace. It had been a hard couple of weeks adjusting to Hermione's disappearance. Their marks had started dropping a considerable amount and they had taken to just sitting quietly in the common room, talking about nothing at all. They had been a threesome for so long it was difficult to figure out what they were supposed to do now that there were just two of them.

"Have you read any of your letters yet?" Ron asked, breaking the silence.

"Just the one. I figure if I read them one at a time it will seems as though she really is away. She put some pictures of my parents in it and told me that there would be more. Apparently she's living with my mum."

" I couldn't wait. I read all of mine. But mine didn't have anything like that. She told me more about the homework she's been doing so that I can be better prepared for the year she says. Apparently she doesn't think I'm going to be able to pass the year without her. Mind you, I probably can't," Ron finished sadly.

Silence loomed over the pair for a little bit longer until Harry finally asked, "What if she doesn't come back Ron? What if she stays stuck?"

"Well you heard what Dumbledore said. They did try to bring her back but the spell wasn't exact. It might take her a while to pop back to us. I wouldn't worry Harry, Hermione's brilliant. She wouldn't try something that wouldn't work. Besides Dumbledore said that she'd gotten help, so there's something. I don't think we should worry about it."

"Yeah," Harry whispered, still staring into the fire.

He was finding it hard to be as optimistic as Ron. His entire life everyone that Harry loved had been taken away from him. First his parents, then Sirius, and now Hermione, and Harry was starting to wonder if maybe he was just cursed. Perhaps it was all his fault somehow.

While he hadn't given up hope that she would come back, he wasn't expecting it. He had already begun to mourn the loss of his friend. The only comfort he had were her letters. It stung that she was the one that had been able to go back in time and be with his parents, but she seemed to be making up for it with her letters. The first one at least had been a few pages long, full of all her stories about what the future Potters were doing and how they had gotten together. From the sound of it all, Hermione was getting to see them at the very beginning of their relationship.

And she had promised to take as many pictures as she could. She had already included a few of her and his mother as well as a few of her and the rest of the mauraders. It was hard not to be overly jealous of her but there was nothing he could do.

All there was left to do now was to ration her letters and hope for the best. After all, Ron and Harry were a bit pathetic without Hermione.


	23. Chapter 23

**_Please don't hate me :) _**

* * *

It had been one hell of an awkward week for everyone. Remus began to sweat nervously whenever he was in the same room as Hermione and he found himself unable to put together coherent sentences, while Hermione gave up on speaking entirely when Remus was around. The other's would have found the situation much more amusing if they hadn't been stuck in the middle of it all. In order to establish a time to meet up for their date, Hermione and Remus had been using Sirius and Lily as their go-betweens. And while no one vocalized their concerns, everyone was wondering how in the world the pair were supposed to go on a date when they couldn't seem to be able to function while in the same room.

And yet, somehow, the pair found themselves meeting up at the entrance to the castle on sunday afternoon. Despite her protests, Hermione had been subjected to a minor makeover courtesy of her well meaning roommate. Her hair had been tamed and there was some light makeup on her face. Hermione had been able to keep Lily from going over the top by reminding her how awkward the week leading up had been, and how too many improvements may make Remus faint.

So there she stood, looking somewhat like her usual self, dressed in one of Lily's skirts. She had fought Lily on that too, but Lily had clearly won. Hermione had to admit that it did in fact look nice, but it was a bit uncomfortable and she was forever worried that a strong breeze would come by.

She had arrived a bit early and now found herself fidgeting with the edge of her shirt while she waited. It was ridiculous to be so nervous, at least that's what her brain was trying to tell the rest of her body. For Merlin's sake, this was just Remus. She had known him for years! Why should his presence all of a sudden make her nervous? When Krum had taken her out in her fourth year she hadn't been this nervous. Though she had never really liked him all that much, but then again she didn't think she liked Remus all that much either, at least not in that way. But then why was she so nervous?

A tap on her shoulder made her jump and she turned around to see a well groomed Remus standing behind her, the smile on his face fading with her surprise.

"Oh, i'm so sorry, I didn't mean to scare you." He apologized.

"No, no that's fine, you didn't scare me, I guess I just was lost in thought," Hermione smiled.

This was the most put together she had ever seen Remus. His hair had been combed nicely, his shirt was pressed and tucked into his trousers, and it looked as though he had polished his boots. Hermione wondered if Remus had gotten as much help getting ready as she had.

"You look beautiful," Remus said, breaking the silence.

His smile was hesitant, clearly he too was nervous, but the compliment sounded sincere.

"Thank you," Hermione answered, "You look very handsome yourself."

Silence took over for a few moments, before Remus mumbled something and gestured towards the path leading to Hogsmeade. Nodding her head and mumbling something herself, Hermione and Remus began the walk down to the village.

Remus then asked how classes were going and they settled into comfortable conversation. School was always a safe topic for the two of them and one they could go on about for hours. As they walked, they talked about her project with Snape, his big DADA project that he had going, and how much they had missed studying together in the evenings. Soon the nerves that had taken over them for the past week were gone and they were back to being their normal selves.

They were enjoying the conversation so much that in no time Remus was holding the door open for her at the Three Broomsticks. Hermione chose a quiet table off to the side while Remus grabbed a couple of butterbeers. Originally Remus had suggested going to Madam Puddifoot's because of its 'romantic' nature, but Hermione had squashed that idea quickly. She had never been a huge fan of frills and cupids and Harry's description of the place had been more than enough reason for Hermione to decided that she never wanted to visit the place herself.

They sat on the same side of the booth when Remus came back, leaving a respectful distance between themselves. But soon the conversation turned from school and onto more personal topics. Remus began telling Hermione stories of when he first started Hogwarts and about his home life, and while she had to be a bit more vague with her details, she began to tell Remus about Harry and Ron and her family.

Back in her time, she would have never been able to talk to Remus like this. He would always answer a question honestly, but he would very rarely talk about his years at Hogwarts and his friends, especially once Sirius died. It was as though he was afraid the memories would disappear once he spoke of them and so he guarded them closely, except with Harry. Though Hermione doubted that Remus ever went into so much detail about his life with Harry.

They moved closer to each other as the conversation continued. It was an unconscious thing that neither of them were aware of until they were less than an inch apart. They grew quiet as they stared into each others eyes. The nerves that had been missing most of the afternoon were slowly coming back, and Hermione could feel her heart beating faster.

"Hermione," Remus began slowly, "you do remember that I am a werewolf, right?"

Hermione found herself unable to speak and so she settled with nodding her head, very much aware of how close they were.

"And that doesn't bother you?" Remus asked.

Smiling, Hermioine took Remus' hand in hers and gave it a small squeeze, "Of course not Remus."

She couldn't tell if it was her pulse or his that she could feel racing as they held hands under the table, but they were both sweating a little bit. Seeing Remus smile back at her caused her heart to start beating faster and she swore that if it kept on this was, she was going to faint.

It was strange really. She had begun the day sure that she felt nothing but friendship towards Remus, but as she held his hand in hers she realized how much she did fancy him and that's why she had been, and in fact still was nervous. If she felt nothing but friendship for him, then why would she have held his hand? Why would her heart be racing like this? Why would she find herself unable to stop thinking about how nice and inviting his lips look? Those most certainly aren't thoughts that you have about a friend.

"I was hoping that you would say that," Smiled Remus.

"Oh really," Hermione answered coyly, "and why is that?"

Slowly Remus began to lean in even more, never breaking eye contact, as he answered, "Because I've been wanting to do this for a very long time."

His lips felt nothing like she expected them to. She knew that he had never really had any experience kissing before, so she expected him to fumble around, miss the mark, and be too rough but it wasn't. They were soft, much softer than Krum's, and they lightly pressed against her own and her eyes fluttered closed. It was sweet, and slow, and simple. It couldn't have lasted more than a few seconds, but as he pulled away she felt as though hours had passed.

Remus was beaming and Hermione could tell that she was too. She could deny it no longer, she very much fancied her future professor. They stared at each other, smiling, lost in the moment, and Hermione was just about to say something, when she saw movement in the corner of her eye.

And that's when the cheering began.

…...

"You could have been a bit more subtle you know," Remus moaned from his bed that night.

"Sorry Remus," Sirius laughed, "I was just so proud of you, I couldn't help myself."

"We had been doing a good job of keeping ourselves hidden up to that point, you do have to give us that," James added.

Rolling his eyes Remus asked, "So how did you manage to fit all four of you under that cloak of yours anyway?"

That question brought a frown to James' face, "It wasn't easy."

"Oi! I said I was sorry," shouted Peter.

"Yes, but I told you not to eat beans! You almost killed Evans with that last one," Sirius shouted back.

"You'd think after dating Jame's she would have a higher tolerance for foul smells." Remus smiled. "But still, did you have to interrupt us so soon?"

"Sorry Mooney, like I said, I just couldn't help myself."

"And it's not as though we ruined your afternoon. I saw the two of you on the way back to the castle. Looked to me as though you're a fast learner," James smirked.

Remus' smile grew as he recalled the walk back to the castle, "Yes, it seems as though you're not the only one with a girlfriend now James."

James gave Remus a congratulatory pat on the back, "Nice job Mooney."

A sniffle turned their attention back to Sirius, who seemed to be trying his best to hold back some tears. "I'm just so proud!"

Rolling their eyes, the other's threw various things in Sirius' direction, effectively stopping him.

And so they began talking about other things, while Remus sat in his bed and remembered the afternoon. He grew excited about seeing Hermione the following day, and thought about how lucky he was that he found a girl that was fine with his condition, and how especially lucky he was that the girl was fantastic. It had been one of the best days of his life.


	24. Chapter 24

_**Love me :) And I've got the next one half written. Read and Review, they keep me going! :)**_

* * *

As Hermione lay in bed that night, she realized that it might have been the strangest day of her entire life. She had been living in this time for a while and so the strangeness of what she was actually doing had begun to fade away until right now.

Today she had gone on a date almost a decade before she was supposed to be born, with her third year defense against the dark arts teacher who also happened to be a werewolf. A date that she very much enjoyed. Then her future teacher kissed her. And the kissing was followed by a round of applause from her not yet born best friend's dead godfather, her not yet born best friend's dead parents, and the man that murdered them. And they talked and laughed and shared some butterbeer while she held hands underneath the table with a werewolf who was also her teacher.

It had been a strange day.

And she found herself unable to talk to anyone about how strange this all was and it was maddening! Sure, she could write letters to her friends in the future about what was going on but it was not as though they would be able to write back. There was no one in her time that she could talk to either.

Days like this made Hermione wish that one of her friends would figure out who she really was and where she was really from, at least then she could have someone to talk to about how strange everything was.

But despite the strangeness, the day had also been wonderful. The Remus of her time had never turned her head. He was always a professor, someone to be respected, someone to learn from, not someone to fawn over. The only professor she had ever fancied had been Professor Lockhart and to be honest he never was that good at being a professor. But this Remus was nothing like the one she knew. Yes he had the same complexion, the same sandy hair, and the same smile but this Remus was happier. He joked, he laughed, he didn't yet carry the weight of the world on his shoulders, and he wasn't her professor yet.

She hadn't expected anything to come of the date. She thought that they would go out, have a decent time, and the decide to remain friends and that would be that. But how could they remain friends after that kiss?

Thankfully, they had been left alone while they said goodnight to each other. Remus had formally asked Hermione to be his girlfriend and she had accepted. They had kissed some more before they parted ways, before Hermione had to go upstairs and talk every little detail out with Lily.

But now she was his girlfriend, Hermione Granger was officially dating Remus Lupin. What would Harry think?

…...

November 10th, 1996

"I wondered when you would be coming to see me."

"I need to talk to you," Harry said as he pushed his way into the room.

Remus gestured towards the chair in front of his desk, "I can see."

He took the seat opposite and noticed a folded up piece of paper in his hands, "Is that what you want to talk about? Are you confused with one of your grades?"

Harry shook his head. He remained quiet for a moment, nervously moving the piece of paper between his fingers, trying to find the words to say.

"You dated my best friend."

And that may have been the very last thing Remus expected to come out of Harry's mouth.

"Yes I did. I didn't know who she was at the time."

"She wrote Ron and I letters from back then. Apparently she wrote about homework to Ron but she put stories about you and my parents and what was going on. I've been going through them as slowly as I can stand, and I've just gotten to this one. She wrote it after your first date."

Remus wasn't sure what exactly Harry wanted him to say. Yes, he had dated his best friend, but then again that wasn't a fact that he had been aware of until a few weeks ago.

"Did she really." Remus said, not quite sure what exactly he was supposed to be saying, so he decided to ask exactly what he wanted, "What did she say?"

Harry looked down at the floor as he answered, "She had a nice time. Said she couldn't believe what a nice kisser you were."

Remus tried to keep from looking too joyful. This was an awkward time for Harry and he needed to be respectful of that, no matter how much he wanted to jump up from his chair and shout with joy.

"Why didn't you tell me what happened to her? Why did you keep it a secret for this long?"

And there it was, the question he knew that Harry would eventually ask. "I didn't know Harry. I didn't think it was possible that the girl I dated in 7th year and the girl that I was teaching could be the same person."

"But why didn't you ever mention her? You've told me loads about what happened when you were at school, including things that happened in your last year. Why did you never mention her?"

Sighing, Remus settled back in his chair, "I'm not sure Harry. Things with her were complicated and they didn't end well. I tell you about your parents and Sirius and Peter because you deserve to know about them. They are apart of your life and she wasn't, at least I didn't think she was. But you deserve to know the truth about the people you love, Harry. So I promise I will tell you anything you want to know, all you have to do is ask."

…...

It was well past curfew when Harry finally left. Remus had not felt so emotionally drained in a very long time. Not wanting to go back to his rooms just yet, he made his way out of the castle and onto the grounds. The night was peaceful and calm as he walked towards the big tree by the lake, perfect for losing yourself in long buried memories. As he neared the tree he noticed another figure sitting just in front of it.

Remus knew exactly who it was and for once he didn't care. He needed this too much to let anyone else get in the way. The moonlight shone on the lake as he sat down a few feet from the tree, staring at the flowers that grew underneath it. Remus hadn't been back to this spot in years and he was surprised to notice that the golden locket was still nailed to the tree.

As he sat down, he asked the man next to him, "How did you manage to keep it up there for so long?"

"Sticking charm."

"Oh, right," he said quietly.

They sat there in silence for what seemed like hours, both lost in thought. All this talk of his old friends had brought back old pain he thought he had long ago buried. It was almost too much for him to bear sometimes. He had cared for her a great deal and he had dealt with her loss when it had come, but Severus had been right. Now that he knew who she really was, it was as though he was losing her all over again.

And as he and Harry had spoken, Remus realized how angry he was becoming with her. How much he resented her for leading him on and for lying and for leaving. How angry he was that she allowed him to care for her, knowing the whole time that she was never going to stay, knowing that she would just be another person to have abandoned him.

And as much as he knew he was feeling, Remus knew that it had to be worse for Severus. He was beginning to understand why he flew away from this place. In fact, as he sat there staring at the tree, he wondered if he shouldn't do that himself.

Movement beside him brought Remus out of his thoughts and he saw the man next to him get up to leave.

"Harry will come looking for you soon," Remus called out.

"Why?" Severus asked, stopping where he was.

"He came to me tonight and asked me questions. She wrote him letters, told him about what was going on. I told him the truth."

"Did you tell him everything?"

Remus was surprised by the tone of Severus' voice. He would have expected there to be more malice behind his words as there usually was, but tonight it seemed to be replaced with despair.

"Only my part. But I'm sure you're name will come up soon enough. You might want to figure out how to tell him."

There was no reply and honestly Remus didn't expect one. What more was there to say? He listened as Severus' footsteps faded away and he was alone once more. He knew it was unfair to blame her for everything, but that didn't stop him from wanting to. Remus spent all night by the tree, not moving until he saw sunlight beginning to creep up across the grass.

When he got back to the castle, he went straight to the Headmaster's office. Albus was already awake and feeding Fawks when he arrived.

"Forgive me Albus, but I will be taking one week off starting today, hope you don't mind."

He didn't wait for approval or a comment. He rushed back to his rooms, packed quickly, and took his floo to the Leaky Cauldron. Never in his life had he ever done something so rash or thought about something less, but he knew that he couldn't spend another moment in that castle. He needed to get away from everything that could possibly remind him of her, if only for a little while.


	25. Chapter 25

**_So it's been about a week and a half since I last updated. Did y'all think that I had left you again? Well I'm not so you don't have to worry about that. Anyway in case you hadn't noticed, I'm re-publishing a lot of my old one-shots and y'all should check them out :) Also I updated one of my other stories, The Great Divide, which is somewhat of a tie-in with this story. It explains what happened with Lily, Sirius, and Severus when they were children before Hogwarts. Well I hope you enjoy this chapter, sorry if it's a little short. The next one should be longer. Please Read and Review :) :)_**

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"Hey Hermione, Remus is waiting for you down here!" Lily called up the stairs.

The past few days had been like this. Hermione would spend every available moment between breakfast and dinner studying and going to class, but once Remus came to take her to dinner she became all his.

It was sweet really that Hermione had finally found someone that was worth putting away her books for and Lily was genuinely pleased that Remus had found something that didn't mind his little furry problem.

Lily had already had a quick dinner that night and was planning on spending the rest of it catching up on her homework. Hermione and Remus getting together had been an exciting thing for everyone but unfortunately she had gotten a little behind on her homework because of it.

When she got up to their room, she noticed a folded note on Hermione's desk. Now Hermione wrote notes all the time to her friends so at first Lily thought nothing of it. But as she sat there at her desk, writing a paper on the various ways to turn a couch cushion into a dining set, she became curious. It wasn't normal for Hermione to keep notes out on the desk without sealing them first, and she never mentioned what she was writing about, and to be honest Lily had always been a huge snoop.

Lily went back and forth in her head about what she should do. She desperately wanted to know what was in the note, but she didn't want to invade Hermione's privacy. But she very much wanted to know what was in the note. Perhaps it was a love note to Remus? Oh how sweet that would be!

And eventually her natural nosiness won out and tip toed over to Hermione's desk and opened it.

A few minutes later Lily folded the note back up, walked quietly back to her desk and stared blankly at her essay.

When Hermione came back that night after having dinner and studying with Remus Lily was sitting in her bed, waiting.

Hermione could tell by the look on Lily's face that something was definitely wrong.

"Tell me about Harry, Hermione," Lily said calmly as she sat on her bed.

"There's not much to tell really," Hermione started as she prepared for bed, "He's a good friend of mine from back home."

"How old is he?" Lily asked.

"Our age."

"And what does he look like?" Lily continued.

"Brown hair, about this tall," Hermione said as she lifted up her arm, "why do you want to know?

Lily locked eyes with Hermione as she answered her question, "Just curious. What about his parents? Is he a muggleborn like you?"

Hermione wasn't sure what had gotten into Lily since she'd left, but something was definitely up. Even though they had only been around each other for a short time, Hermione had learned quickly that Lily was never just curious. She always had a purpose. But this wasn't a question that she had ever thought she would need to answer. How in the world was she supposed to explain this?

She couldn't. So she decided to lie, "Yes they are. His mom's a school teacher and his dad works on cars. Nice people."

Lily stayed quiet for the next few moments, and when she broke eye contact Hermiome began to relax a bit. Lily's questioning always stressed Hermione out for obvious reasons and she was glad that this particular session was over.

Before she got into bed Hermione walked over to her desk to make sure that she had finished her essay for charms when she noticed. The letter that she had been writing to Harry sat open a few inches from where she knew she had put it.

And all of a sudden Hermione understood.

While her letters to Ron were always full of notes and tips on how to get though the year, her letters to Harry read more like a diary. She told him everything that was going on in her life and when speaking of Lily and James she had always referred to them as his mum and his dad. After all it seemed only fair that she tell him everything that she could about his parents and his godfather. And she had always been so careful about putting her letters away before she left the room.

But tonight Remus had been early, and in her rush she had simply folded it and put it on the desk not thinking that Lily would be snooping.

"So you say I have a son?" Hermione heard Lily ask from her bed.

Not wanting to turn around and face her, Hermione answered, "Yes."

"Turn around Hermione and look at me," Lily demanded.

It was a tone that Hermione had only heard used on misbehaving first years and Hermione found herself compelled to obey.

"You know, you shouldn't leave things like that just laying around Hermione."

"And you shouldn't be reading another persons' note."

Hermione wondered what she should say next. She could tell by Lily's stare that she expected Hermione to explain herself but she honestly had no idea how. Yes she was mad at Lily for snooping but there was no way she could possibly deal with being angry at the moment, that would be an argument for another time. Right now all she could feel was panic.

How in the world could she explain this in a way that would make Lily understand? If only she had her time turner with her, she could perhaps send them back an hour and at least show Lily that it was possible. Though if it came to it, she could take Lily up to Dumbledore and he could help convince her.

There was no lie, no story that she could tell that could get her out of this situation. All that she could really do was tell Lily the truth and hope for the best.

"I know how bizarre this is going to sound Lily but I need you to have an open mind. I'm from twenty years in the future. I'm not a transfer student, I've been going to Hogwarts since my first year and that's where I met Harry. I was head girl and I was studying in my room, _this_ room, when curse hit my time turner and sent me back here. I hid under your bed so you couldn't see me and then when you left I ran to dumbledore's office. If you'd like, you can ask James or Sirius or Remus or even Peter. I'm pretty sure they saw me rush out the day I arrived."

The room was silent for a long time. Lily just sat on her bed, staring at her sheets, not even moving an inch.

Hermione wasn't sure what exactly to do with herself but she found that she couldn't bring herself to move. She was too afraid that any sort of movement at all would trigger Lily and potentially spend her into some kind of psychotic rage which would be quite justified. After all, Hermione had pretty much just told her that she would spend the rest of her life with James Potter and that was difficult news for anyone to hear.

"So you're from the future." Lily said slowly.

"Yes," Hermione answered quietly.

"And you're friends with my son."

"Yes."

"The son that I have with James."

Hermione nodded.

Lily stayed quiet for a moment, still staring at her sheets. But then she looked up with the most worried face Hermione had ever seen.

"Oh Merilin," She began looking panicked, "do I get fat?"


	26. Chapter 26

_**Hey guys! This chapter is a bit longer than the one's I've been posting lately so I hope you enjoy that. Plus Snape finally makes another appearance, so yay! There's not much else to be said tonight other than I hope you enjoy and as always, Read and Review :)**_

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It did eventually take a trip up to Dumbledore's office and a few safe memories from the future for Lily to eventually come around to the idea that Hermione was telling the truth. But in the end Lily had been convinced and Hermione had sworn Lily to secrecy about the whole thing.

"Even if I did tell someone, I don't think they would believe me." Lily had said.

The next couple of days went by incredibly slow. Lily had a million questions to ask and very few of them were easy and uncomplicated. After all, it's not as though she could just tell Lily that in twenty years she and her current boyfriend would be dead after being betrayed by one of their best friends. So she stayed as vague as she could with the details and lied about most everything else.

And then the questions about Remus began as they were sitting in the common room one afternoon studying.

"So are you planning on going back?" Lily asked, looking up from her Charms homework.

"I'm going to try," Hermione said, "but I haven't figured out a way yet."

"And what's going to happen to Remus when you go back?"

"I'm not sure," Hermione answered honestly, "I know that he's single in my time but he'll be a lot older than me by then. And I know I wouldn't dare ask him to wait for me. But perhaps if everything works out here then I might have to give it a try."

"If I would have known that you weren't from here, I would have stopped those boys from meddling in the first place. I mean, I love you and Remus together but it would be a pity to have to break his heart when you go back."

"I know," Hermione smiled sadly, "That's why I resisted at first. But in the end I couldn't help myself. He is a _really_ great kisser."

To be honest, Hermione hadn't really given much thought to what was going to happen to her relationship when she left. Even though she and Remus were having a good time being together, she had never really thought that the relationship would last more than a few months. But if it did, she knew she was going to find herself in a very difficult situation.

That night she met up with Severus for the theory portion of their lessons. Overall the lessons were going fine but progress was slow. While Severus was excelling at everything, Hermione was having quite a hard time. It was the first time in her life that she wasn't able to pick up a subject quickly and it was becoming frustrating for her. She found that she had Snape to thank for all of her current progress, as irritating as it was for her to admit.

Though she suspected that had she been sorted into Slytherin she may have liked Snape, or at the very least respected him. Even at this age he was smart and talented and it was difficult for her to not envy his mind.

He had been a tremendous help to her when it came to learning the Dark Arts. Over the course of the week she was more than able to comprehend the theory behind the spells and curses, but she routinely failed practically. And yet Snape was always able to get her to the point where she was able to preform the spell at least once adequately.

They had just gone over the Dark Arts lesson for the evening and they were planning a time to write their potions essay.

"Why not tomorrow evening?"

"I just said that I can't Snape. Are you deaf?"

Severus sneered, "No, but tomorrow is the best time for me and you can't seem to come up with a reason why it can't be tomorrow."

"I have a date alright," Hermione spat, "and I don't feel like canceling. Thursday would be best for me."

"Fine," Severus spat back, "we will meet in the library after dinner."

"Fine," Hermione answered shortly.

She wasn't sure how the conversations with Severus got like this. They never seemed to be able to talk like normal people. From the day they met, there had been nothing but hostility between them. Though technically she had already met him before, so she was quite biased. And now that she thought about it, when she first met him he was seeing a reflection of the girl who was bothering him now so how else was he supposed to react?

It was then that she realized how much of her dislike for Snape came from her idea of him that she had formed based on the opinions of others. Granted he did nothing to give a positive impression of himself, but she had never really given him a chance to do otherwise. Would he have been such an angry git to her if she hadn't been so rude to him to begin with?

She then realized how little she really knew about Snape and she decided that since she was going to be forced to spend so much time with him, she would try to get to know him a little better.

But all that was going to have to wait till later. Severus had stormed out of the room in his normal billowy fashion and Hermione got her things together.

Remus was waiting for her in the common room when she got back. He smiled at her as she took the seat next to him on the couch and let her things fall on the floor.

"You know I could see a lot more of you if you'd let me help you study," Remus said before kissing her on the cheek.

Smiling, Hermoine turned to him and kissed him on the lips, "Yes but you're too distracting and I wouldn't actually get much studying done."

"Pity," Remus smiled.

Instead of telling Remus the truth about what she was doing two nights a week, she had decided to tell him that she was spending time studying privately in the library. She thought that perhaps telling her new boyfriend that she was spending two nights a week alone in a room with someone that he hated, practicing skills that were frowned on by most wizards was not a good idea.

They stayed up talking about their respective days until the conversation faded and they ended up snogging. It was how they had spent most of their evenings since that first date.

Hermione was surprised by how much she enjoyed spending time with Remus and especially surprised by how much she enjoyed snogging him. It hadn't taken her long to stop thinking of him as her teacher once the snogging had begun and there were times when she was with him that she forgot entirely that she was from another time.

His presence in her life was a welcome comfort.

…...

The weeks had gone by slowly. Every moment spent in class felt like an eternity now that she had Remus to look forward to once they were done. They had been together for about a month now and today was the first full moon that Hermione would experience as his girlfriend. Sure she had dealt with Remus' transformations before so she knew what to expect, but now that they were a couple, was she supposed to do anything differently?

They had said goodbye before dinner and after Hermione met up with Severus for their theory lessons.

Severus was a bit more agitated than usual and it quickly wore away at Hermione's patience.

"What is wrong with you Snape?" She snapped as they discussed the spell that would allow them to literally hex someone's arm off.

"Nothing," Snape snapped back.

"Hardly," Hermione continued, "I've been around you long enough to know the difference between your general unpleasantness and this. So why don't you just tell me so that you can go back to being you're normal amount of snarky?"

Snape glared at her but something she said must have gotten to him, "Full moons make me uncomfortable."

And then Hermione remembered what happened with Snape and the maruders. How James and Sirius and loured Snape into the Shrieking Shack one full moon and Remus had almost killed Snape. It must have only happened a year or so ago so of course Snape must still be nervous.

It was easy when spending so much time with the boys to forget that they too had done some horrible things to Snape. Truly awful things that, if ever done to her, would certainly turn Hermione into an unpleasant, distrustful person.

"I'm sorry about what happened," Hermione offered, "that was cruel what they did to you."

She had thought that the apology would have helped a little, let Snape know that at least on that she was on his side, but it didn't. If anything, it made him even more angry.

"So your boyfriend still brags about it then?" Snape spat, "I wouldn't think he would share one of his failures with you."

"It wasn't his fault you know," Hermione answered, growing defensive, "He didn't know what he was doing. You shouldn't blame him for what happened."

"I doubt you'd so easily forgive him for almost taking your head off."

Hermione didn't answer. She knew that Snape's anger was completely justified and had she been in his shoes, she wouldn't be so forgiving either. What she didn't understand was how in just a few short years he and Sirius had gone from friends to trying to murder each other, what had happened?

"What happened with you and Sirius?" Hermione asked, "Lily said that the two of you had been friends when you were little."

Snape made a noise that could only be classified as a growl before he answered, "That's none of your business."

"Well it must have been bad given that he tried to have you gutted by a werewolf. What did you do to him?"

That made Snape laugh. Not the normal sort of laughing that people do when they're happy, but that ridiculous kind that people do when you tell them they only have two months to live and there's nothing they can do about it.

"You're friends with the boys who tried to kill me, you're dating the werewolf that tried to gut me, and you're roommate is the girl that came up with 'Snivellus.' Of course you would think that everything was my fault. You're supposed to be smart, aren't you? Haven't you figured out that perhaps you are not getting the entire story?"

Hermione then went quiet. He was right, she hadn't really thought about where she was getting all of her information from. Even back in her time, her opinion of Snape had always been based on Harry's. But there had been a time before she had been friends with Harry, and she remembered being completely indifferent to Snape. She hadn't thought him overly hostile or cruel like she did now.

They spent the rest of the time speaking only of their assignment. For once they had come across a spell that Snape didn't know so he was just as focused on learning as she was. The hour passed and it came time for them to separate.

They were out in the hall and Snape was getting ready to billow away when Hermione said, "Hold on Snape. I guess it wasn't fair of me to assume you were a prat. I'd be willing to forget everything that happened between you and I and start fresh if you were also. I'm not saying I want to be friends," She added quickly when it looked as though he was going to object, "it would just be nice if we could be civil. I won't hate you because the people I spend time with do, if you won't hate me for spending time with them, alright?"

Hermione put stuck her hand out so they could strike a deal and after a few moments of staring, Snape took her hand and shook it.

"Deal," he answered, the angry look leaving his face.

And for the first time Hermione was able to see what Snape's face looked like with out his normal sour expression. His face looked almost pleasant.

And so they parted ways and for the first time in years, Hermione realized that she was not dreading the next time she was going to have to interact with Snape. Smiling, Hermione began her walk back to her room completely oblivious of Peter staring at her behind a pillar just a few feet away.


	27. Chapter 27

**_AN'S are at the bottom today._**

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Peter had been silently following Hermione around for the past week, ever since he had seen her and Snape in the hallway. It was an easy enough job. No one had ever really noticed him that much and as long as he controlled his breathing he could become nearly invisible. The fact that he could change into a rat at will also helped.

He hadn't said anything to anyone about what he had seen the week before. He hadn't wanted to start anything unless he knew for a fact that something was going on. Remus had said that she and Snape were working on a project together for class, but still, the way they were speaking to each other the week before had stuck him has a bit strange.

He'd always known that she was a bit of a nutter when it came to studying, he hadn't realized just how much of one she really was. It was all she did it seemed. After three days of her going through the same routine of sleep, class, study, and snog Peter was about to give up. And that's when he saw her meet up with Snape again when she had told Remus she was going to the library.

After that night, he had continued to follow her and that is how he found himself standing in the same hallway as the week before, staring at the door that Hermione and Snape had walked into an hour before. He knew that it was now time to tell Remus. This was the third time the pair was meeting and he knew that she was lying to Remus about where she was going.

As he waited for them to come out his mind raced, thinking of what they could possibly be doing. Surely Hermione wasn't so boring that she would lie about studying. Perhaps, he thought, this whole time she had been scheming with Snape and soon they would attempt to bring down the marauders. Or perhaps Snape had cast a spell on her and had made her his evil henchman and she would someday kill all of Gryffindor tower in their sleep. Or perhaps they were just snogging.

When they eventually came out, Peter saw Hermione was smiling. Smiling! After spending time with Snape! He didn't bother to follow her back to the dorm. He needed to get Remus as fast as he could, and Hermione always seemed to take the longest route possible.

He burst into the head's common room very much out of breath. Remus was sitting on the couch, waiting for Hermione as he always did, when he caught sight of Peter propping himself up on the door to keep from falling.

"Are you alright?" Remus asked as he rushed to Peter's side.

"Must...Speak...To...You," Peter gasped, pointing to James' room, "Private."

Remus nodded, looking worried, as he helped the out of breath boy up the stairs and into James' room.

…...

He had never been the kind of person that jumped to conclusions. He had never been the kind of person that was quick to anger. He had never been the kind of person that created confrontations. And yet here he was, doing all three.

He had stayed calm while Peter was telling him all that he had seen and his rational mind told him that really, Peter hadn't seen anything of interest. However, his irrational mind had already begun to think of all the things that Hermione must be doing with Snape. He found himself pacing the floor as Peter told him three more times what he saw.

Remus grew angry as he paced back and forth. Why would she be lying to him? Was she sneaking off to snog Snape? Obviously she wouldn't be lying to him unless she was doing something bad. Why had she even gone out with him in the first place? Was she doing it out of pity? Had she never cared for him at all?

And Remus found all his insecurities bubbling up to the surface, and he paced, and he fumed until he could take it no more.

He ran down from James' room and was about to run over to Hermione's when he heard her voice.

"James and Lily are up there and believe me, you don't want to see what they are doing."

Under normal circumstances, the sound of her voice would have been enough to calm him. But these weren't exactly normal circumstances.

He had a million things that he wanted to say, a million questions that he wanted to ask. His brain searched for a proper beginning to what was inevitably going to be the first, and potentially last, fight of their relationship but all he could come up with was, "Are you cheating on me with Snape?"

He watched her face as it went from surprised, confused, and then finally landed on something resembling panic, "Of course not!," She declared, "Where on earth would you have gotten such an idea?"

"Isn't that who you with tonight?" Remus shouted.

"I was in the library by myself Remus, you know that." Hermione said matter-of-factly.

"So you are cheating on me then!"

"Did you not just hear what I said?" Hermione raised her voice, "I was alone, in the library, all evening. How in the world do you come to such a conclusion after I've told you that?"

"Peter saw you!" Remus spat, "On the night of my transformation, he saw you with Snape. And he saw you again on friday, and once again tonight! You're lying to me, Hermione, so what else am I to assume?"

He watched as her eyes went wide and she froze. Remus paced back and forth in front of the fireplace, staring at her blank face.

"How could you Hermione?" Remus shouted with a bit less intensity, "And with _Snape?_"

"It's not what you think," Hermione began, "I'm not cheating on you."

"And why should I believe you? You lied about being with him."

"I know," Hermione said quietly, "I just didn't want you to get angry."

"Fat lot of good that did," Remus hissed.

"We're just studying," Hermione tried to defend herself.

"Behind a locked door?"

"Yes," She answered, "it's for our potions project. We didn't want anyone messing with it so we decided to put it behind locked doors to keep it safe. It's a very delicate potion."

"Then why didn't you just tell me?" Remus asked, his voice growing calm, "Why did you lie to me?"

"I didn't want to make you angry, I know how you feel about Snape," She answered as she walked over to him. "And you know how I feel about you."

Hermione smiled as she took his face in her hands and kissed him lightly on the lips, "I care about you Remus, I would never do anything to hurt you," She said as she kissed him again.

And as much as he wanted to pretend everything was alright and spend the rest of the night snogging, he couldn't. He grabbed the hands that were on his face and took them off. He stared into her eyes for a long moment, wondering what had happened to the girl he had met.

"You already have," Remus frowned as he let her hands fall from his, "you lied about spending time with another man. How can I forgive you for that?"

Remus didn't wait for her to answer. He didn't want to hear it. Instead he turned away, grabbed his things that were still sitting on the couch, and walked out of the room.

Hermione watched as he walked out the door, then fell to the ground and cried.

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**_So that was a fun chapter to write :) I hope it was a good one to read as well. I'm sorry it's so short but it was either short or you wait another few days. Anyway just to remind you all, this fic is still a Severus/Hermione, even though right now it's a Remus/Hermione. The end will come soon for those two and she can get on with loving her some Snape ;) Anyway! I'm ranting. So, everyone, please read and review! I love hearing what y'all think. _**


	28. Chapter 28

**_Hey everyone! Told you I was back. Anyway the next chapter is nearly done so that should be posted soon. I hoped you like this one. And do y'all like the the bits in the present? I do like writing them :) Though, my favorite bit is coming up soon. Woo! Well I hope you enjoy the chapter. And as always, please review. I love hearing from y'all!_**

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She had been smiling tonight when she had left. Why had she been smiling? Severus was sure that he hadn't said a thing that would be worth smiling for. And yet he was sure, before they said goodbye, she had indeed been smiling. Perhaps she was simply glad to be getting away from him.

Their last couple of meetings had been tolerable since they had made their agreement and he was doing his best to separate his hatred for those she chose to spend her time with from her as a person.

It had been a little easier tonight. It was always easier on nights when they weren't doing practical applications. Then again those were the nights when he wasn't afraid that one of her stray spells would kill him. But still, he had done nothing to elicit a smile.

After they had parted, Severus had made his way down to the library to pick out a few books that he had been meaning to get and it was much later by the time he had left. And just as he was rounding the corner, he was run over.

Severus had been pushed flat on his back and it took a few moments for him to recover his breath. As he began to sit up he heard, "Oh Merlin, you've got to be kidding me."

"Where the hell were you going to so fast Lupin?" Snape spat as he got up.

"None of your business Snape," Remus countered as he rubbed his arm.

As the two stood there, shooting daggers at one another, Remus realized what a gift fate had just given him. He had been planning on going up to his dorm, talking to Sirius, and then falling into a pitiful sleep. Now instead, he may be able to take some of his anger out on the boy who had caused it.

"I may not be the best looking bloke," Remus began, his mouth forming a wicked smile, "but compared to you? What in the hell is she thinking?"

"I'm sure I have no idea what you're talking about Lupin," Snape answered sourly.

Snape moved towards Remus, trying to get past him, but he was blocked.

"Get out of my way," Snape hissed.

"No," Remus smiled crossing his arms.

"When did you suddenly grow a backbone?" Snape spat.

"About the time when you started snogging my girlfriend," Remus spat back.

"What the hell are you talking about?" Snape asked, growing confused.

"You know exactly what I'm talking about," Remus shouted.

And Remus snapped. He shoved Snape back against the wall and punched him square in the face, taking joy in the fear that rose up in the boys eyes. As he raised his fist to throw another punch, Snape countered. Remus tried to duck but Snape's fist still managed to connect with Remus' jaw and the force was enough to cause him to stagger backwards.

Had this been anyone else fighting, it could have ended there. But the hatred between these two boys was too strong. Remus hated Snape for essentially stealing his girlfriend, and Snape hated Remus for nearly tearing his head off.

Punches were exchanged, kicks were taken in the gut, and the pair beat on each other for what seemed like forever, neither one of them willing to give up the fight.

Minutes later, Professor Slughorn and Professor McGonagall rounded the corner and shouted for the boys to stop once they saw what was going on. But it took two more professors to pry the boys apart.

Remus was a mess, hunched in the middle with torn robes, a black eye already forming, and a split lip. Severus hadn't fared much better. He was unable to put weight on his left leg, with what they suspected was a broken nose and blood covering his left ear.

They were both sent to the hospital wing that night and put on opposite sides of the room. That night Remus went to bed smiling despite the pain he was feeling. He had defended his pride and stood up for himself. And now he was no longer feeling pitiful, instead he felt strong in spite of his three bruised ribs.

Severus went to bed utterly confused. What in the hell had Hermione said to Remus for him to act like that? And why had he been accused of snogging her? He wasn't sure what was going on, but he sure as hell was going to find out once he got out of this place after his knee healed. After all, it wasn't worth getting into fights over a girl he could barely tolerate. Though she did have decent eyes.

November 20th, 1996

Harry was more nervous than usual walking into potions class that day. The further he got into Hermione's letters, the more they turned into journal entries. Harry knew that he was reading things that she would never have had the nerve to tell him in person. Never before would she have gone into so much detail about Remus' kissing with him. Though most of the time, when she wasn't talking about kissing, he enjoyed the detail. He loved that he was getting to know his parents, the good and the bad.

And the letter he read last night had made him nervous to go into potions.

Snape had always been mentioned in her letters every so often and she had written to him about the project that she was doing with Snape. So when Remus' name started to become less common and Snape's began to show up a bit more he took no notice of it. It was normal. When Hermione's relationships begin to fade, she throws herself into school work, so obviously his name would be coming up and that was fine.

But that letter!

Harry was nervous because now, as he sat in his potions class trying desperately to pay attention, all he could think of was how much his best friend seemed to enjoy kissing Snape's lips.

…...

Ron hadn't been doing very well since Hermione had disappeared. His grades had dropped, though not as much as they would have if she hadn't given him some help through the letters, and he had hardly spoken to anyone outside of Harry. Not even Ginny was able to get him going these days.

He had Harry were still the only students that knew the truth, everyone else thought that she had been called away. There were a thousand different stories running around the halls. Some say that she had been put into a safe house to protect her from you-know-who, others said she had been selected by the ministry for a special think-tank, others even said that she had been captured by the ministry and was being tortured for information on Harry Potter and Dumbledore. Some even said that she was dead.

He had been bombarded by questions when she first disappeared and while at first he tried to answer them, he had given up after a few days and stayed quiet about it ever since. His moods had been so sour that he wasn't even capable of getting angry anymore.

Harry had been sharing some of what she was telling him in his letters and Ron was grateful for that. That is, until he found out that she had dated his old professor. His feelings for Hermione had always gone back and forth. He'd never tried anything, fearing that if he did he would destroy their friendship, but lately he couldn't help but wishing that he had. After all, if they had been dating when she went back to the past, surely she wouldn't have started dating a werewolf and he wouldn't have had to hear about it.

And despite how much he disliked hearing about her dating Remus, he found himself wishing for that again. He held the letter Harry had read the night before in his hands. Normally Harry would have said something about what was in it before he'd gone to bed, but he hadn't. Ron was curious about what she had written. Obviously it had to be something bad based on Harry's reaction, but Ron hadn't expected that.

For the first time in weeks, he felt something burning in his chest. How could she have done that? His mind raced with the images of the two of them together, touching, kissing, and it was driving him mad! He stood up from his bed and paced back and forth, desperately wanting to hit something, anything.

Snape! How in Merlin's name could she ever go for Snape!

Ron wanted to run, he wanted to find Snape and snap his neck for daring to touch his best friend, and then he wanted to go back in time and knock some sense into Hermione as well. What in the hell was she thinking?

After all the years that they spent hating him, after all the years they spent trying to prove his evil and she goes and snogs him after spending a few months with him. It was insane!

How could she have possibly gone for that git? And over Ron? He knew that there had been times when she had fancied him too, but she had never gone for it either. But she'd go for Snape? Snape!

Ron just couldn't take it anymore. He was angry that he'd never made a move. He was angry that his best friend was gone and may never come back. He was angry that he wasn't allowed to tell anyone. He was angry with her. He was angry that all she thought to tell him in her letters were homework tips. He was angry that Hermione had dated Remus. And he was furious that she had snogged Snape.

He had to find a way to get rid of this burning in his chest. Dumbledore had forbidden Ron and Harry from leaving school grounds, something about keeping them safe so going to Hogsmeade was out. And although he wanted to go and punch Snape's face in, he didn't want to get expelled. But he had to do _something._ And then he remembered, Slytherin would be walking back from the quidditch pitch right about then and Malfoy always deserved a nice beating.

The decision made Ron feel a little bit better. So he grabbed his coat and his wand, pushed past the first years that were coming up the stairs to the dorms, and made his way to the quidditch pitch.


	29. Chapter 29

**_Sorry I know this is a short chapter but this seemed like a good ending point. And I had a few questions come up in reviews so I'm going to answer them here. No this is not a Ron bashing story, that's just how I feel as though Ron would react in that sort of a situation. And no, the relationship that I have between Lily and Severus is not cannon, in fact the 6th or 7th book (can't remember which one) kinda killed my little theory. But as I said in the summary for this story, it doesn't fit the cannon after the 5th book. But anyway, here's the chapter! I hope y'all enjoy it. I'm really going to be focusing more on the relationship between Hermione and Severus over the next few chapters and I hope y'all are excited :) Anyway, please Read and Review!_**

* * *

It had been two days since the fight and Hermione wasn't feeling any better. She hadn't said a word to Lily about what had happened and thanks to the fight that Remus had with Severus, he hadn't told anyone either.

She had gone to see him at the hospital a few times but he refused to speak to her. She remembered that he was very good at holding a grudge, but she thought that was a trait that he had developed in his older years.

Class was over for the day and she was making her way over to the hospital wing once again, though this time not to see Remus. The potions project was due the next day and she had to talk to Snape to make sure that he was going to be there to help her present.

Thankfully there had been an accident on the quidditch pitch so Remus wasn't able to see her walk in past all of the activity in the middle. And she said a quick thank you up to the heavens for whatever god had made sure that Snape and Remus had been put on other sides of the wing.

Snape was sleeping when she sat next to the bed so she gave him a hard poke on his forehead, the only part of his body that she was sure wasn't in pain, to wake him up. He groaned a few times and his arm swatted near the top of his head but he remained asleep. So Hermione tapped a few more times, and a bit harder this time, and Severus opened his eyes a bit.

"What the bloody hell do you want?" He groaned.

"Our project is due tomorrow, remember?" Hermione replied sharply.

"Of course I remember," Snape spat, "and I am sure that you are more than capable of presenting it yourself."

Perhaps it was the pain talking, but Hermione knew that under any other circumstances, Snape would never have allowed her to present their project alone. He never would have trusted her to not screw it up.

"I won't have to," She answered, "I've been assured that you will be fine by then."

Severus groaned, "Alright, I will be in class then. Is there anything else you needed?"

"I needed to go over our presentation," Hermione exclaimed, "we need to be prepared. Don't you want to be prepared?'

"Lower your voice!" Severus scolded, "We will be prepared. Now could you please just go away before your boyfriend sees you?"

"Why would you care?" She asked despite the fact that she was thinking the exact same thing.

"How do you think I ended up in here?" Severus spat, "That wolf must have seen us studying and gotten the wrong idea and he attacked me."

"Oh god," Hermione groaned, "this is all my fault."

"It bloody well is!" Severus agreed.

"And it wasn't him, it was Peter," Hermione began. Severus had gotten himself beaten up over her, it was only right that he knew the whole story, "I hadn't told anyone about the lessons that I'm doing with you, I just told them that I was in the library alone. Peter saw us together when I was supposed to be alone and told Remus and he drew the wrong conclusion."

Severus scowled, "I don't see how you could possibly be worth all of this trouble."

"Well I am an excellent snog," Hermione teased, "not that you'll ever know."

"Not that I'd want to," Severus smirked.

Hermione smiled back at Severus, enjoying the fact that they could now at least tease one another in a playful sort of way. She knew that their relationship would probably never be a good one, but she was grateful that they could at least have small moments of civility.

It only took around ten minutes for them to go over the notes for the presentation the next day before Hermione was satisfied. She didn't stay and talk for long after, they were both anxious for her to leave Severus' side, and then she made her way over to see Remus.

"Hello," Hermione said sheepishly as she approached him, "I was just wondering how you were doing."

"I'm fine," Remus answered coldly while staring at a spot on the opposite wall.

"Good," Hermine answered, trying to keep a smile on her face, "are you going to be able to go home for the holidays then?"

"Yes," He snapped, still refusing to look at her.

"Good, good. It would be a shame not to see your family because you were stuck in the hospital."

"Yes, and what a shame it would be if I was stuck here with you, am I right?" He hissed, finally making eye contact.

She held onto his gaze, as difficult as it was. The hatred and anger she could see coming from them broke her heart, "You know that's not true!" she exclaimed.

"Isn't it?" He responded pathetically.

"You know how I feel about you Remus. And the way your treating me, well frankly, I don't deserve it. I know I lied about working with Severus but that's all we were doing, working!"

"And how am I supposed to believe you? You already lied to me about one thing."

Hermione sat down on the chair next to his bed. She wasn't sure what she could do, what she could say, that would convince Remus that she was telling the truth.

"And how was I supposed to tell you that I was spending nearly three evenings a week alone with Snape?"

"Like that perhaps?" Remus snapped.

"Well just look at what happened when you found out!" Hermione exclaimed. "You got into a fight with him that landed the both of you in the hospital wing for days!"

"I was defending my honor," Remus protested, "I thought the two of you were cheating and I had to do something about it."

"And that's exactly my point," Hermione answered, "you and the rest of the boys have a long history of not trusting Snape, as well as torturing him for no good reason. I needed him alive for our project and I did what I thought I had to."

Remus was quiet for a while and Hermione hoped that he was considering what she had said. She sat there and watched as he went back to staring at that spot on the other side of the wall. At least ten minutes had passed before either one of them said anything again.

"I guess I understand," Remus began quietly, "though that doesn't excuse your lying."

"And I am sorry for that Remus."

And for the first time in days, she saw a hint of a smile cross his face, "I know."

Hermione smiled back at him and leaned in to give him a soft kiss. She had a feeling that this fight wasn't quite over, but she was glad for at least a little bit of a break.

…..

Remus had excepted her apology, he knew that she was sorry for what had happened. And he was beginning to realize that perhaps he had jumped the gun just a bit by assuming that she and Severus were snogging. He knew he couldn't stay mad at her for something that she hadn't done. And she'd had a point. If he had known that she and Snape were spending so much time together, he wouldn't have reacted well.

But there was just something that he couldn't get out of his head.

He had seen them talking before she came over to his bed. There had been a break in the crowed and he had looked over and seen the two of them talking.

And as he looked up into her face and saw her smile, he realized that it was the same one she had given Snape earlier. They might not be snogging, but Remus knew that something was most definitely going on.


	30. Chapter 30

**_Hey everyone :) I'm back again! First of all, I'd like to say thanks to AlbinoBlackSheep for your review. Your words were very much appreciated. Now onto tonight's chapter. I hope you all like it. And let me know what you think about the interaction between Hermione and Severus. I very much enjoy hearing your thoughts. And once again, I'm going to let you all know that this is still a Hermione/Severus story. It has never stopped being a Hermione/Severus story. Just because I put in a different pairing at the beginning of the story does not mean that it will stay that way. Oh! And one more thing. If my updates over the next month or so take a bit longer then they are now, it's because I'm in the process of moving that means that for a few days, or even a couple of weeks, in the near future I will be unable to post. But that doesn't mean that I will be unable to write. So just FYI, if you don't see me posting for a bit, that's why. I'll still be writing. So I think that's about it. I hope you enjoy the chapter and as always, please Read and Review!_**

* * *

"Please don't spend the entire holiday worrying Remus, it'll ruin the holiday for everyone," James whined.

"I'm not worrying," Remus spat from his seat, "I'm just thinking."

"Same thing," James groaned from his seat on the train.

"I think you're being to hard on her," Lily interjected from the seat beside James, "Besides I thought the two of you already made up."

"Of course they didn't," answered Sirius, "why else would she have stayed at the castle."

"You're not helping Sirius," Lily snapped, smacking his arm.

"This is all my fault," Peter whined, "If I hadn't gone and opened my big fat mouth,"

"I'm glad you told me Peter," Remus interrupted, "It's better that I know what's going on."

"She did have a point though," Lily continued, "the four of you do have a history of torturing Snape for no good reason. Remember what you tried to do after he made her cry?"

Sirius laughed as he remembered, "That would have been fantastic if she hadn't gotten in the way."

"But surely you see her point. It was wrong that she lied, but she was lying for good reason. And honestly Remus, the fact that you think they were doing anything other that study is crazy."

"I guess your right," Remus answered pathetically, "I just keep getting this nagging feeling that she's hiding something from me."

Lily didn't answer, choosing to keep her mouth shut. She knew that Hermione was, in fact, hiding something from Remus, but it wasn't her place to tell him what.

"I still don't understand how you could possibly be jealous of Snape," James continued after a long silence, "I mean, have you seen the guy? He looks like a corpse that was left in the lake to rot for ten years."

"Well it's not as though she has high standards," Remus answered, "she is dating a werewolf. For Merlin's sake, I spend half the month looking like a dead person."

"You're too hard on yourself Mooney, sure you turn into a mangy dog once a month but so do I, and I'm always surrounded by gorgeous women." Sirius paused as he looked around the carriage, "Ok, well right now it's just one gorgeous woman but still. You shouldn't let that stop you."

"I get it Sirius," said Remus, "now could we please stop talking about this and move on to something else?"

The carriage was quiet for a few moments as they all tried to think of something else to talk about.

"So who's everyone snogging for new years?" Sirius finally asked, breaking the silence.

Remus was quiet for the rest of the trip. He pulled his coat over himself and pretended to sleep in the corner while the others talked. He knew he needed to get over this whole thing but it was difficult. Perhaps it was a good thing, then, that she wasn't coming with them. Perhaps it would do them both some good to get some distance from one another.

She had assured him that now that their project was over, there wouldn't be any need for her to see Snape. So at least he wouldn't have to worry about that anymore. But for the first time since he left, he realized how alone she was going to be in the castle. He knew that she had made friends with a few other people in the castle, but he was sure that he had seen them all leave too.

And as they reached the station, Remus began to re-think staying at James' for the holidays. After all, without Hermione there, who _was_ he going to snog at midnight?

…...

"You didn't go home for the holidays either?" Hermione asked as she practice her wand movements.

"No," Snape answered as he watched her movements carefully, looking for flaws, "and you're making too big a circle there. You need to keep it tighter if you don't want to blow yourself up."

Hermione tried again, "Like that?"

"That's a bit better," Snape nodded.

It was the first day of holiday break and everyone had left that afternoon. It was going to be Lily's first christmas with James and she was going with the rest of them to his house. Hermione had been invited, but she'd decided to stay at the school. Things hadn't gotten that much better than Remus and James' house was already going to be quite full. So she'd made her excuses, said it would be nice to get some studying done while things were quiet, and said goodbye.

She had figured that Severus had left on his holidays too, so when she got to their practice room she was surprised to see him there.

"Why did you stay? Lily said that the two of you always spent your holidays together growing up."

Severus smirked, "I believe you just answered your own question."

Hermione rolled her eyes, "But she's not going home this year, she's going to James' with everyone else. You wouldn't have to deal with her this year."

"She's not my only cousin," Severus answered darkly.

Hermione was still getting used to the idea that Severus and Lily were related, so she hadn't quite realized that it meant that he was also related to Harry's aunt, Petunia. And thought Hermione had never really met her before, she'd heard plenty of stories.

"You're not circling at all now, you're just pointing." Severus snapped. "It needs to look like this."

Severus was effortless as he showed her the wand movements. It was a complicated spell and the wand movements had to be precise. She had been trying, and failing, to copy him properly for over and hour and she was beginning to grow frustrated.

"That's exactly what I did!" Hermione complained, "I think you're being to hard on me."

"I'm only being hard on you because I'd like to continue living," Severus scolded.

"Well whatever it is that I'm doing wrong, I can't figure out how to fix it." Hermione replied.

Severus rolled his eyes as he stood up and moved towards her. When he reached out to touch her, Hermione took a step back.

"What do you think you're doing?"

"You want to get this motion correct, right?"

Hermione nodded.

"Then stand there and shut up."

Hermione was cautious as Severus took her by the shoulders and moved her closer. He moved behind her and got so close she swore she could feel his heart beating through his robes. Her hands were lying firmly at her sides and she tried not to resist as Severus took her wand arm and raised it so that it made a 90 degree angle with her body.

"How can anyone stand to be around this much hair," Severus complained as he pushed her hair to one side of her neck.

"At least mine doesn't look like someone glued a mop to my head," Hermione teased.

She could feel Severus' breath on her neck as he covered her wand hand with his hand. His hair tickled the back of her neck as he kept her hair at bay with his free hand. She had never been this close to Severus before and she wasn't sure if she liked it. They'd never had this much contact before and it was very unsettling. Hermione felt her heart begin to beat faster as he began to move her hand with his.

"It's like this," said Severus as he began the spell.

Hermione tried to concentrate on the way he was moving their hands, but she found it hard to think of anything with Severus' face so close to hers.

She heard Snape whisper the words of the spell and she watched in amazement as the bones that were lying a few feet in front of them began to put themselves back together. Slowly the form of a cat took shape, and red glowing orbs took the place where the eyes would normally have been.

"Wow," she whispered as Severus finished the spell, letting go of her hand.

"Indeed," smirked Severus.

Neither of them moved as they watched the skeleton roam around the room. Hermione was amazed. She'd never seen anything like that before. It moved as though it were alive, though Hermione knew that it wasn't. She still wished she could take it home.

"How long will it last?" Hermione asked, still staring.

"Depending on size, mine can last a couple of days. Though the bigger and more powerful the creature, the shorter the time. Most wizards can only manage to keep a human skeleton moving for a couple of hours."

"When did you learn to do that?"

"My third year."

"You're kidding!" Hermione exclaimed, breaking away from Severus so she could turn to look at him. "I don't believe you."

Smirking, Severus answered, "You'll believe me as we move towards more advanced dark magic. There's very little that I can't already do."

"And yet your still so humble," Hermione smiled.

Severus ended the spell on the cat and it crumbled back into a pile of bones. "Now try again, but this time, say the spell as you go."

Hermione smirked as she raised her wand arm and pointed it towards the sack of bones, "Not afraid that I'll destroy you anymore?"

"I'm also that good of a teacher."

This time it was Hermione that rolled her eyes, "Is there anything you can't do?"

She concentrated on the pile of bones, remembering the way Severus' hand had moved as she muttered the spell.

Her cat only lasted about a minute, but Severus assured her that she would get better with time. And so she kept practicing, and they kept talking, and it was late when they finally said their goodbyes for the evening. And that night as Hermione began to drift off to sleep she found herself thinking, not of Remus, but of Severus.


	31. Chapter 31

******_Don't really have any A/N's for you tonight. Hope you enjoy the chapter. And as always, please Read and Review :)_**

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The castle was blissfully quiet as Hermione strolled through the empty hallways. Though her heart was sad that she was away from her friends and family this year she kept reminding herself that if all went well, she would be able to go back home and it would have been as though she'd never left.

But as the days went by, she wasn't sure how she was going to go back to her old life after all of this. And some days she wasn't sure that she wanted to. When the lessons with Severus went poorly, or when she remembered how little life Lily had left, she wondered if she should even try. It was dangerous and it might not work. And would it really be that bad to live through the next twenty years?

As she wandered around the castle, she imagined what it would be like to stay. She could get a job at the ministry, join the Order, get a sweet little house near James and Lily. She could stay with Remus, they could have a normal relationship and perhaps he would join her in that sweet little house. She would watch as Lily and James started a little family. She could plan the shower and, when the time came, be their secret keeper. She could expose Peter for the traitor he is and he could save them. And then Harry could keep his parents.

And they could all send their children off to Hogwarts together, and they would be best friends. She could even watch herself grow up and when seventh year came around, she could resume her friendship with Harry and Ron. Sure, she would be much older than them by that point, but it could still work. And even if it didn't, it wouldn't matter. She would have James and Lily and Remus and the little family they made and the sweet little house.

It could all be so perfect if she stayed. There wouldn't be any risk.

Except for Voldemort.

Lily and James had to die. They had to protect Harry because without him, there would be no one to kill Voldemort and there would be no hope.

And she doubted that her relationship with Remus would last till the new year, so there would be no chance of a sweet little house next to the Potters.

And without James, Lily, Remus, and Sirius, what would be the point? She knew how dark their futures were, she knew that she could do nothing to change them. So did she honestly want to stay, just to watch them all be destroyed?

It made her heart sick to think of all that they would have to go through. She tried not to think about it and most of the time it was easy. But here in this empty castle, without their laughter to drown out her thoughts, she couldn't keep them away.

She did have to go back. There was no way that she was going to be able to save Lily, so she had to do everything she could to make sure that Harry stayed alive, if not for his sake then for Lily's. She had to go back, for them, for Harry and Ron. They needed her to stay safe, after all, how many times had she saved their lives already?

Hermione shook her head, trying to rid herself of such thoughts. Yes, she did have a decision to make, but that was still quite a ways down the road.

Her stomach growled and she realized that it should be about lunch, so she made her way towards the Great Hall.

It was a quick walk and when she walked in, she was one of only ten students there. She had never seen it so deserted before. There wasn't a person sitting at the Gryffindor table, and though she usually preferred it when she could sit in silence, this was not one of those times. She needed someone else there to talk to so that she wouldn't be able to dwell on what she wished could be.

She scanned the hall and saw that most everyone that was there was fourth year or below. And just as she was about to resign herself to a lunch alone, she spotted a familiar face sitting at the far end of the Slytherin table.

If she hadn't been so desperate, she never would have considered sitting with him. But it was either sitting with him, or sitting alone, so Hermione choose the lesser of the two evils.

"I don't fancy sitting alone, alright?" She half snapped as she sat down across from Severus, trying to cut him off before he could say anything.

"Alright?" He answered looking confused.

She noticed that where his plate should have been, was instead a book.

"Not eating?" She questioned as she helped herself to a piece of chicken and some potatoes.

"Already have." He answered shortly.

"So why aren't you reading somewhere quieter?"

Snape looked up from his book and glared, "It was quiet enough here just a few moments ago."

Hermione rolled her eyes and tucked into her food. Perhaps sitting alone would have been a better idea. It wasn't as though she and Snape were friends.

"Oh come on Severus, you know you like me," Hermione smiled sarcastically.

Severus' raised eyebrow was his only response.

"I thought it might be nice to eat lunch together so neither one of us had to sit alone," She continued honestly, "but I can see that it was a bad idea. If you'd like me to go, just say the word."

Severus thought for a moment before answering. "I guess it's not the worst thing that could happen."

Hermione smiled through a mouthful of potatoes and she noticed a hint of a smile cross Severus' face. The rest of the meal was spent mostly in silence, with only a small amount of conversation in between. But nevertheless, before they left, they made plans to sit together once again that evening for dinner.

The relationship that was growing between her and Snape was strange. She wouldn't go as far as calling them friends yet, but she could no longer deny the possibility that it could happen. Ever since they had made the truce with each other, things had been easier. The conversation was generally lighter and they had been able to tease one another.

She was beginning to see a human side to him that she never thought was there. And when she had walked into their practice room and saw him standing there, she couldn't deny that she felt just a little bit glad to see him. The conversation that night had been easy, effortless. In a strange way, she was beginning to feel comfortable around him. And the way she had felt the night before when he had been so close...

Without another thought, Hermione added that memory to the list of things she was no longer allowed to dwell on.

…...

They had spent nearly ever day during the break together so far. Hermione told herself that it was only because there was no one else around and spending her days with Snape was preferable to spending them all alone. The conversation had been minimal. Usually they just sat buried in their books, not even looking at each other. She had gotten the hint once or twice that perhaps Snape would prefer to be alone instead of with her but she didn't care.

It took her all of two days to realize how impossible she found it to be alone. Though to be fair, ever since she, Harry, and Ron had become friends, there hadn't been much time to be by herself. They had always been together, and she had gotten used to having people around her all of the time.

So she was using Snape as a friend patch of sorts. Though she had no idea why he kept agreeing to meet with her and she wasn't about to ask him and ruin everything. But today was christmas eve and Hermione had toyed with the idea of canceling their practical lesson, but had decided against it in the end. Severus didn't seem to care about the holiday and honestly, she didn't either.

Besides, she was quite excited about this particular lesson. They wouldn't be melting things, or raising skeletal cats, instead they would be tearing things to pieces. It was a dangerous spell but she knew that if she could master this, it would help the Order immensely once she got back.

And just like every other week, she found herself practicing the wand movements while Snape watched from a chair.

"A little practice can't hurt you, you know," She grumbled.

"True, but why should I practice when I'm already perfect?" He answered smugly.

"So remind me again, why didn't you go home for the holidays? Were you afraid that you'd get behind on your mocking?" Hermione asked playfully.

"Of course," He answered dryly, "because everyone's world revolves around you, including those that dislike you."

Hermione smiled, "Well I already knew that. But honestly, why did you stay? Lily's not going to be there and I'm sure it has to be better than being stuck here with me bugging you all the time."

Snape's face fell flat, "You're not going to let this go until I answer, are you?"

"No," She beamed.

Snape looked her up and down, crossed his arms over his chest and said, "I could outlast you."

"You think so?" She said as she raised an eyebrow, "You do understand that I can be quiet irritating when I want to be."

"You're being irritating now."

"And I'm not even trying."

Snape was quiet for a few moments, as though he were weighing the options in his head and trying to figure out what would be worse.

A few minute had passed before he spoke, and when he did he spoke quickly, "My mother is dead and my father has disappeared and the rest of my family is unbearable so I stay. And I will say nothing more on the subject, understood?"

Hermione, who had still been practicing the wand movements, stopped. Of all the excuses she expected him to say, that never even crossed her mind.

"I'm so sorry-" She began before she was cut off.

"Don't," Snape snapped, "and if I find that you've mentioned any of this to anyone else, I'll hex you into oblivion."

"Alright," she answered quietly.

She honestly hadn't expected Snape to be truthful with her and his answer had taken him by surprise. She wasn't sure what to say to break the awkward silence that had fallen between them. She wanted to show her sympathies with him, but he'd already cut her off when she had tried.

As the silence grew, she picked up her wand and tried the motions again.

"Am I doing it right?" She asked in a small voice.

Snape nodded in agreement so she pointed her wand at the dummy they had set up across the room and readied herself.

She moved her wand as she spoke the words and watched for the tearing to begin. Halfway through the spell, she grew worried when she noticed nothing was happening to the dummy. And that's when she felt it. Pain shot up her leg and exploded once it reached her midsection. She didn't notice that she had fallen until she saw Snape's hair dangling above her face.

His lips were moving but she couldn't hear any words, the pain was just too intense. Black tendrils began to reach across her vision. She tried to cry out but she felt too weak. Her eyes went dark and she couldn't remember what happened next.


	32. Chapter 32

_**Sorry for the short chapter. It wanted to get a chapter out sooner rather than later so yeah. Not much to say tonight. Just please, enjoy the chapter. And as always, Read and Review :)**_

* * *

There was just so much blood!

He'd seen pictures of what the spell could do if it backfired, but they never showed this much blood.

He had to stop the bleeding. He grabbed his wand and ran to her side and began muttering every healing charm he could think of. He tried his best to put her skin back together but it was difficult to concentrate when all he could think of was all the blood that was coming out of her.

How could such a small girl have this much in her?

Perhaps she kept it all in her hair.

After what felt like hours, he had closed the majority of her wound, but there were still parts that would not come together. He had always been so good with the healing potions that he hadn't practiced as hard with the spells. Oh how he wished he had practiced more with the spells.

He needed to get her somewhere safe. Somewhere where he could give her potions to help.

So Severus lifted Hermione carefully, making sure not to open her wound, and muttered a cloaking spell. It took three tries for him to get it right, he was shaking so badly.

She wasn't bleeding anymore but she was still no where near alright.

November 23rd, 1996

"I gave Ron two months of detention for attacking Draco so you don't have to worry about disciplining him anymore Severus." Remus mentioned as he sat down at the professors table for dinner.

"Do you really think that's sufficient punishment Lupin?" Severus sneered, "Weasley attacked another student without being provoked. Draco is in the hospital wing."

"He's having a hard time with the disappearance," Remus whispered, "give him a break."

"Give him a break?" Severus growled, "Like the one you received after you attacked me and put me in the hospital wing?"

"You put me there too," Remus countered, "you weren't entirely innocent remember?"

Remus sighed, this was not at all how he wanted this conversation to go. Yes, normally, conversations with Severus did not go well but lately whenever he would try to talk about something, Severus would bring up all the things that had gone on between them in the past. He knew why he was bringing them up, but it still didn't help.

Remus let a few minutes of silence pass by before he offered, "We don't have to be at each others throats you know. We have a lot in common, especially now. You have to admit that I may be the only one who understands what you're going through. So if you wanted, we could help each other get through this."

He stared at Severus' expressionless face while he waited for a reply. He gave up after a few minutes more of silence, deciding instead to focus on his dinner.

"You don't understand," Severus hissed as dinner came to a close, nearly half an hour later.

"Yes I do," Remus answered in what he hoped was a comforting tone.

"You're a fool," Severus spat as he rose from the table.

He moved quickly as he left the Great Hall though the back exit, his robes billowing behind him.

Normally this would have been the point where Remus gave up and vowed to try again another day. But he had tried to get through to Severus, tried to be there for him, and he was tired of getting nothing but contempt from the other man.

So instead of letting Severus run off like a spoiled child, Remus decided to follow him. He said his goodbyes to the teachers around him before taking off after Severus.

It didn't take long for him to catch up to Severus, and he called at him from down the hallway.

"Severus!" Remus shouted.

But Severus kept moving away from Remus. So Remus grabbed his wand.

"Petrificus Totalus," Remus shouted as he pointed his wand towards a disappearing Snape.

He heard a loud thud echo down the hall and he knew the spell had worked. He smiled when he made eye contact with his petrified college and saw the pure hatred boiling in his eyes. Remus pulled Snape into a nearby classroom, stood him up, removed his wand, and locked the door.

Severus lunged for him the moment he whispered the counter spell but Remus was ready for him and moved out of the way.

"I'm not letting you out until you listen to me Snape," Remus said politely.

"Fine," Snape hissed, "but give me my wand."

"No," Remus answered, "it's the only way I can keep you here."

"You do know that I'm going to curse your head off the moment I get it back?"

"Now now," Remus scolded, "That's not going to get you out of here any sooner."

"Will you bloody hell stop talking to me like I'm a first year!"Snape screamed.

"Fine," Remus answered in his normal tone. "I will. As long as you stop acting as if you're the only one who realized that the girl you cared about still exists."

"She's not here, you know. You don't have to pretend that you liked her," Severus spat.

"You have no idea what I felt towards her," Remus shouted, "how dare you accuse me of not caring after what you did."

"And what exactly did I do?" Severus hissed, keeping his voice low.

"You took her from me!" Remus continued to shout, "We were happy and then you took her from me you great corpse!"

"You have obviously snapped werewolf," Snape growled, "it was weeks after you broke her heart before I went near her. You were the fool that let her go. And now you walk around the castle looking more pathetic than usual, mourning for the girl you dumped, pretending that after all this time you still cared."

Remus was angry, more angry than he could remember being in a very long time. After all this time, after everything that had happened, how could Severus continue to lie about what had been going on? Remus thought that after everything they both had been through, he would at least be honest.

"Stop trying to play the hero, Snape, it doesn't work." Remus snapped, "I saw you come out of her room during the holiday break. Don't stand there and pretend that she wasn't cheating on me with you. I saw you!"

"You don't know what you saw."

How in Merlin's name could he still be denying this! Remus couldn't believe what he was hearing. He wanted nothing more than to hex Snape off of the planet. And that was it. He was done talking. He was done trying to help Snape through this. Remus was the wronged wizard in this situation and he was tired of extending an olive branch to the scoundrel who had stolen his girlfriend.

"Take your bloody wand," Remus ordered as he through over Snape's wand.

"We're going to settle this like wizards, like we should have done years ago."

A smile crept over Snape's face as he took his wand in his hands.

"My pleasure."


	33. Chapter 33

_**So this is a fix of the chapter 33 that I had previously posted. I've updated it to include a scene that I had written, but apparently forgot to add. So here I am, adding it. Should make a bit more sense now :) OH, and please Read and Review**_

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"You do realize that I should terminate both of you," Dumbledore said as he stood over Remus and Severus, "if I hadn't found you when I had, you probably would have killed each other."

"Pity you came when you did," Severus growled from where he lay in his bed, refusing to make eye contact with Albus.

"I understand that things have been particularly difficult for the both of you these past couple of weeks but that is still no excuse for your behavior. Therefore I have asked Madame Pomfrey to keep the both of you here until I can be sure that you will not harm one another."

"Surely that won't be necessary Albus," Remus began from the bed next to Severus.

"It is. Madame Pomfrey assured me that it would take at least three days to grow back the bones in your lower half, Remus, and at least four for Severus' arm to stop bubbling," Dumbledore answered as his voice acquired a more serious tone, "now I have found replacements to lead your classes over the next few days while you find a way to co-exist without violence. I expect the two of you to have made up by the end of the week."

Albus smiled as he walked away, the shouted protests of the men he was leaving behind falling of deaf ears.

"Meddling old fool," Severus spat once Albus had left the hospital wing.

"We did bring this on ourselves," Remus offered.

"We?" Severus spat, "There is no we. You did this Lupin. This is the third time you have put me in the hospital wing and I promise you, the next time you attack me I will put you in your grave."

"You played just a big a part in all of this as I did. You agreed to the duel. You're just as much at fault."

"I'm not the one who started using fists," Snape countered.

"Fine," Remus conceded, "but it wasn't as though you backed down. We did this to each other. We are both at fault."

After a moment of silence, Severus added, "You do realize I wont be brewing your wolfsbane potion anymore."

"I assumed," Remus answered sullenly.

"We need to figure out how we're going to live in this castle together without killing one another," Remus continued.

"It would be a much easier thing to do if you stopped attacking me based on your half baked theories." Severus spat from his bed.

"I don't know what you're talking about," Remus answered defensively.

"In seventh year you put me in the hospital wing because you claimed that I was snogging your girlfriend," Severus began, "And now you have, once again, put me in the hospital wing because once again you assumed that I was snogging your girlfriend behind your back despite the fact that you have no facts to support your claim."

"Why do you keep denying what you did Snape?" Remus snapped back, "This could all be over if you just admit that you snogged!"

"Because I'm not going to admit to something that never happened." Snape growled, "It's been twenty years since everything happened, can't move on already?"

"Can't you?" Remus snapped back, "I'm not the only one who hasn't moved on. You haven't even thought of another woman since Hermione. I think its _you _that needs to move on."

If it hadn't been for the fact that Severus' leg was in a cast and one of his arms emitting giant soap bubbles, he would have jumped off of his bed and suffocated the man next to him.

"Once again you speak of what you do not know," then Severus added, "and my inability to move on hasn't led to physical harm."

"Hasn't it?" Remus answered, gesturing to his very flat lower half.

They were quiet for a very long time after that. Remus knew that if they were ever going to become civil, it was going to be up to him to figure out how. Severus had never been one to begin a compromise, no matter if he was forced to or not.

He hated the idea of being stuck next to that snake for the next few days and he hated Albus for thinking that keeping them together would be a good idea. The hatred between Remus and Snape ran too deep to be solved and now with everything that had happened over the past couple of days, Remus was beginning to think that the days of co-existing peacefully were over.

But they shouldn't be, Remus' rational thinking chimed in. They were the only people left that had really known Hermione back in that time, the only two left who honestly had a chance to gain something if she came back from her trip to the past unharmed. That should be enough to build at least a small bridge between the two men.

But somehow, that was the thing that was driving the both of them even farther apart.

Remus had thought he had moved on from what had happened years ago, but recent events had proved that he hadn't. And though he figured Snape had moved on, it seemed as though he was just as stuck, if not more so.

It wasn't late, but Remus tried to sleep, thinking it would be better than sitting in awkward silence with Severus. But after a couple of hours Remus gave up. Sleep wouldn't come. His mind just wouldn't shut itself off. He wouldn't be able to sleep without getting the truth from Snape. He figured he deserved at least that from the snake.

"Tell me what happened," Remus said, breaking the silence.

"What are you talking about," Snape groaned quietly.

"If the two of you were so innocent, then tell me what happened over that break."

"It's none of your business," Snape answered, growing annoyed with all of the questions.

"You're the one that keeps saying that I don't know what I'm talking about. And I know you enjoy correcting everyone," Remus began, "So go on, correct me."

"Fine," Snape groaned as he began, "Did she ever tell you what we were working on?"

December 27th, 1976

"Well it's bloody well about time," Hermione heard Snape say from somewhere in the room.

She hated the first few moments of waking up, when you're still half asleep and you're not quite sure what is real and what is a dream. Her eyes felt heavy and it took more effort than expected to open them. She was in her room, that much she could assume, but then why had she heard Snape's voice? Was that a dream? She began to reach her arms up to begin her morning stretch when pain shot through her body.

"Bloody hell!" She shouted as the pain kicked her out of her dream state and brought her into the world of the living.

"Try not to move," She heard Snape say again from somewhere near her bed.

Panic shot through her as she realized what was going on. The last thing she remembered was talking with Snape during their lessons, and now she was in her rooms, lying in bed, and Snape was there too. Gingerly she moved her hands around the bed, thanking Merlin that Snape wasn't there.

But why in the world was he in her room?

"What are you doing here?" She asked as she found him with her eyes.

He was standing at the edge of her bed, looking paler than usual, his normally irritated look softened by what she thought was relief.

"You don't remember?"

Hermione shook her head and immediately regretted the action.

"I said try not to move," He scolded as he walked towards her side of the bed. "The spell you were trying to cast backfired. You were hurt pretty badly. You're going to have a scar."

"Where?" She asked, trying to remember what happened.

"May I?" Severus asked as he gestured towards her.

She thought about denying him, then remembered the pain moving caused her and eventually nodded her head.

She watched as Snape moved the blankets off of her body, then carefully lifted the bottom part of her shirt. He grabbed a mirror that was next to her bed and angled it so that she could see her stomach.

Hermione gasped as she looked into the mirror and saw her stomach. There was a huge scar, about a quarter of an inch thick that seemed to start just below the left side of her rib cage and crossed over towards her right hip. She wasn't able to see where exactly it began or where it ended.

"All that from a spell?" She wondered out loud as she looked away from the mirror.

"It was a nasty spell," Severus answered as he moved the blankets back over her. "You lost a lot of blood. You've been sleeping for nearly three days."

"You're kidding," She exclaimed, "so I missed christmas then. But why am I not in the hospital wing? Surely they wouldn't have allowed you to take me back to my room while I was still unconscious."

"Because I never took you," Severus answered sharply, "I didn't want to get either one of us in trouble for practicing the Dark Arts, and I knew I would be blamed for your injury."

"So you were saving yourself," Hermione laughed to herself, "why am I not surprised."

"I was trying to save _you_," Severus spat, his voice giving away his irritation, "I know how to fix an injury like that, I've done it before. If I had taken you to the hospital wing they would have tutted about trying to figure out how to fix you while you bled out an died. I saved your life."

Hermione made sure to catch his eyes, "Thank you," She said sincerely, "I appreciate what you did for me."

"I only did it so I wouldn't to go azkaban," Severus answered, his hash tone momentarily lightened.

They talked for a while after that. Hermione had loads of questions about what had happened, what she had done wrong, and what she had to do next time to make sure that it never happened again. And while they talked, she began to notice the slight change in Severus' attitude towards her. His snaps were gentler, his tried at times to hide his irritation, and in general he treated her a bit softer than he had before.

While they talked, he never left his position next to her on the bed. In fact, at times, it seemed to Hermione as though he were inching closer to her, but she figured it must just be her imagination.

"Now I'll have a house elf bring up some food for you. You're going to be sore for the next few days, but you should be able to move around by tomorrow. I expect to be seeing you in the dining hall at lunch. And these," Severus gestured towards her nightstand where there were a few oddly colored potion vials, "are if the pain gets too bad. Only drink one every two to three hours, and only if it gets bad. That's all I have."

"Thank you," Hermione said for what seemed to be the 50th time that night.

"Of course," Severus answered stiffly as he began to rise from her bed.

As he moved towards the door, Hermione called out, "Severus!"

"What?" He asked as he stopped just before he went out the door.

"You've been very kind to me over the past couple of days. Why?" She asked, hoping she would actually get a genuine answer from him.

"Why not?" He answered as a sly smiled crossed his lips.

Hermione rolled her eyes as he left the room. She was completely bewildered by what had just happened. It had been a lot of information to take in, and with the added queerness of Severus' attitude, she was having trouble believing that all this was not just some elaborate dream. After all, this was a world where Severus Snape had not only saved the life of Hermione Granger, but sat by her bedside until she woke up. Surely this had to be a dream.

December 29th, 1976

This hadn't been entirely his idea. He'd thought about it once or twice while on holiday but it wasn't until he had talked it through with James and Lily that Remus had decided to come. It was a long walk to Hogwarts from Hogsmeade, Remus noticed. Though he was usually with a group of people when he made this walk, so perhaps it was his own loneliness that made it seem so long.

His anxiousness grew with every step towards the castle. He and Hermione hadn't contacted each other since the break began and they didn't say their goodbyes on the best of terms. He still felt as though she wasn't being completely honest with him and he knew that she could tell. But what he had come to realize with their time apart was that he did truly care for her and he didn't want their relationship to end.

And because he was the one who had initiated the conflict, it was going to be up to him to fix everything before his relationship bit the dust. Or at least that's how Lily had explained it.

He spent much of his walk towards the castle thinking of the perfect thing to say once he surprised her. He wasn't sure if he should go with an outright apology or whether he should build up with some sort of heartfelt speech. Or perhaps he should do what Sirius always suggested and simply start off with a good snog.

The castle was deserted when he arrived. He'd only spent one holiday in the castle during his first year, before he'd made fast enough friends with James. He remembered it being quiet, but not this quiet. It wasn't that late and yet there was absolutely no one around. At first he stopped in at the Great Hall to see if perhaps she was still eating, but it was empty. Then he made the long walk towards the library, seeing his first student in the process. When he found that she wasn't in the library, he finally began to make his way towards her room.

Remus was smiling now as he grew more excited to see her. He had decided to go with Sirius advice and just snog her at first. It seemed more romantic that way. And with every step, his smile grew bigger and his heart beat faster. He hadn't realized how much he had honestly missed her until now. And now, seeing her again was all he could think about.

He rounded the corner that would take him straight towards her room when Remus was stopped dead in his tracks. His smile was quickly replaced with a deep frown, the excitement upon seeing his girlfriend was instead replaced with horror upon seeing that snake. And suddenly every reason he had for being angry with her in the first place came rushing back as he realized that he had, in fact, been right all along. She was cheating on him.

Why else would Snape be coming out of her rooms with what, for a brief moment, looked like a smile.

Hatred and anger boiled in his heart and he longed to wipe the smile off of that snakes face, he wanted nothing more than to confront that lying woman and demand a proper explanation for what the hell was going on.

And just as he was about to raise his wand, he wondered why he was even going to bother? Why bother fighting a man over girl who obviously didn't give two knuts about him. She wasn't worth it anymore.

And so Remus made his way back out of the castle, walked down the lonely path towards Hogsmeade station, and waited for a train that could take him back to people that actually cared.


	34. Chapter 34

_**HELLO EVERYONE! First off, I would like to apologize for the length of this chapter. I have written more but as of right now I still don't have internet in my apartment so I am using the computer lab in school and the bits of the story that I was able to transfer to a memory stick. Though had it not been for a last minute idea, this would have taken another couple of days to show up. So at least it's something, right? And there are worse things than getting a short chapter, such as living without the internet for three weeks. Yeah. It sucks. Anyway, I do have more written on the story and I should be connected by the end of the week so expect more around then. But until then, please READ and REVIEW. I very much love hearing from you guys, the bad and the good. So let me know what you think, ask me questions, and just let me know if you like the way I'm headed :) I just really wanna hear from you all. But anyway, enough of my rambling, enjoy the chapter!**_

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December 31st,1976

Hermione had been surprised when Severus had told her that they would, in fact, be doing their lessons on new years. She had figured that with her wound still aching, he would have canceled. But as she sat in the back of the room, watching Severus preform the spell that had wounded her over and over without incident, she found that she was grateful that he had kept the date.

She hadn't been out of her room much since she got hurt. There wasn't much to do in the castle anyway and she had all the books that she needed in her room. Besides, her wound was still causing her some pain and she wasn't eager to do anything that might irritate it.

Severus had made a number of trips up to her room to bring her not only medicine that would help with the pain, but food as well. In fact, the day before, he had brought food for the both of them and they had spent a somewhat pleasant afternoon together. She had even managed to make him laugh once, which was something she never thought she would be able to do.

Their quasi-friendship was still quite new so Hermione was wary to test it with questions, though she was dying to interrogate Severus within an inch of his life. She had been able to glean a few details from him, like how he had been able to heal her when he said that the medi-witches couldn't. Apparently his mother was very gifted with healing spells and potions and she had taught Severus all she knew. When she asked about his father he hadn't responded and he'd remained quiet for the rest of the night.

She had to admit, the more time she spent with him, the more intrigued she began with the mystery that was Severus Snape. She knew there had to be something that he wasn't admitting to that had made him so coarse and the nosy part of her didn't want to give up until she figured out what it was.

Though over the past couple weeks, he had very nearly become a different person toward her, especially after the incident. His remarks didn't hold as much venom as they once did and they came less often. Instead they actually talked. They discussed books, history, potions, everything. He was much smarter than she had ever given him credit for.

If she wasn't careful, then soon she might find herself calling Snape a friend. And what would Harry and Ron think about that?

"Well now you're just showing off," Hermione called out as Severus preformed the curse for the 10th time.

"Perhaps," Snape remarked with a bit of a smile, "but you know you enjoy watching."

"I enjoy doing," Hermoine bit back.

"I am not going to allow you to try this again," Snape answered quickly, his face growing serious. "I don't want to have to explain to Dumbledore how you managed to kill yourself under my watch."

"You're not my guardian you know," Hermione replied sharply.

"When we are doing this, I am."

Hermione rolled her eyes as she watched Snape preform the curse yet again. "Well since you're not going to let me preform this curse, and since I already have the theory memorized, then is there any reason to stay? It's an hour till midnight."

Though she did somewhat enjoy the time she was spending with Severus, she had planned on flooing Remus at midnight and she didn't want to be late.

Severus looked as though he was thinking it over a moment before nodding his head. "I guess there isn't a reason to stay," he said as he put his wand back inside of his coat.

"Wonderful," Hermione exclaimed as she jumped up off of her chair, causing her scar to twinge.

At Severus' raised eyebrow she added, "I just wanted to be able to chat with Remus, that's all."

They gathered their things and began the walk to Gryffindor tower together. For the most part, the pathways to the Slytherin dorms and the Gryffindor ones were the same and they had gotten used to walking together until the paths' parted.

The talk was light, as Hermione's head played over how she expected her conversation with Remus to go. She imagined a million different scenarios, a million different ways it could go wrong as she walked with Snape, until the sight of an owl flying towards them caught her attention. As it flew past, it dropped a letter in her hands. It was addressed to her, in Remus' handwriting and though she wanted to rip it open that instant and figure out what it said, she had no desire for Snape to know its contents.

"What's that?" He asked as he tried to look at the front of the letter.

"Nothing," She said quickly, hiding the front from Severus, "I have to go."

And before Snape could answer, she ran off down the hallway towards her dorms.

…..

_Dear Hermione,_

_I've been thinking about you and I and our relationship over this break. You know that I care for you very much. You know that I very much enjoy spending time with you. But I've been thinking that perhaps we made a mistake. Our relationship worked much better when we were just friends and study partners, before everything was complicated with our feelings for each other. With everything that happened a few weeks ago, I found that I simply do not have it in me to fight for your affection the way a boyfriend should want to. So I've decided to let you go. While I care for you, I think it's better if we ended our relationship. _

_I'm sorry if my decision hurts you, the last thing I ever wanted to do was to cause you pain._

_Remus._

Hermione stared at the letter as she sat on the couch in front of the fireplace. So that was it. Her relationship with Remus was over. She couldn't lie, a small part of her was grateful that he had ended it. She knew that eventually the end would come for them and she never wanted to be the one that had to say goodbye. But it was a very small part. The tears fell from her face as she stared at the words that he had written. He had said nothing nasty, nothing cruel, and yet it was one of the most cruel things she had ever read.

He had given no reason! No reason at all for ending their relationship. And to do so in a letter? How cowardly was that? She wished she could hop on a broom right that instant and fly to him and demand that he give her a proper explanation and a proper break up. While the words were tender, the tone was cold. It felt more like he was ending a business partnership than a romantic relationship.

She was angry, so angry, for she knew that this had to have something to do with Severus. It had to have something to do with Remus' ridiculous jealousy of his. What else could have prompted this?

And as the tears began to lessen, her rage began to grow. She longed to scream and throw things and cause pain for someone, anyone. The clock read a half an hour to midnight, and Hermione knew exactly how she wanted to bring in the new year.

…...


	35. Chapter 35

_**First off I want to say, cable companies suck. Just got internet yesterday in my apartment. Apparently it takes 5 tries for a company to realize that when I say all I want is internet, all I want is internet. I had them show up many times trying to hook me up to cable and phone, but never internet. I almost went insane. Anyway! Here is the chapter. I hope you all like it :) And as always, please read and review!**_

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Hermione stared at the letter as she sat on the couch in front of the fireplace. So that was it. Her relationship with Remus was over. She couldn't lie, a small part of her was grateful that he had ended it. She knew that eventually the end would come for them and she never wanted to be the one that had to say goodbye. But it was a very small part. The tears fell from her face as she stared at the words that he had written. He had said nothing nasty, nothing cruel, and yet it was one of the most cruel things she had ever read.

He had given no reason! No reason at all for ending their relationship. And to do so in a letter? How cowardly was that? She wished she could hop on a broom right that instant and fly to him and demand that he give her a proper explanation and a proper break up. While the words were tender, the tone was cold. It felt more like he was ending a business partnership than a romantic relationship.

She was angry, so angry, for she knew that this had to have something to do with Severus. It had to have something to do with Remus' ridiculous jealousy of his. What else could have prompted this?

And as the tears began to lessen, her rage began to grow. She longed to scream and throw things and cause pain for someone, anyone. The clock read a half an hour to midnight, and Hermione knew exactly how she wanted to bring in the new year.

…...

Though he very much hated the rest of the students he was forced to be around, Snape hated the castle even more when it was empty. Always preferring to hide away in a crowd, he hated being exposed like this. At least the paintings had learned to not try and speak to him and after the incident last year, Peeves had stayed far away, so his walk back to the dorms were at least quiet.

And as he walked, his thoughts found their way back to a familiar topic. Why in Merlin's name was he spending so much time with that girl? When they were together he never thought about it. To his mind, it didn't seem strange that he should be spending time with someone that was only slightly less intelligent than he was. But then once they had parted, he realized how insane it all was. He remembered all that she had put him through that year and he wondered what it was that kept him there once their assignment was over.

Surely he wasn't beginning to consider this girl a friend? That would be ridiculous. He didn't make friends. Not since Lucius had been at school. He had acquaintances yes, but never friends. He was Severus Snape, he tolerated the company of others, he never enjoyed it. And yet he was. He couldn't deny when looking at everything objectively, they had been acting as friends.

His immediate thought after coming to such a conclusion was to end their relationship, but thinking of ending their strange friendship caused him to feel a touch of sadness and that reaction frightened him. He'd thought multiple times about ending his friendship with Lucius and never once had he felt saddened by that.

What was it about this girl that caused him to feel like this?

Severus was only a few feet away from his dorms when all of a sudden he hear feat running towards him.

Set on ignoring the runner, he quickened his pace towards his rooms until the sound of his name stopped him.

"Severus!"

"What?" He barked at Hermione as she ran towards him.

While he was glaring at her, he noticed the tear stains that were on her face. Apparently whatever had been in that letter had upset her. And Severus hoped that she had not come to him for comfort or solace. That was something he would never do for anyone. And then he noticed the smile on her face and, despite his best efforts, hoped that it was directed towards him.

"I was hoping I'd catch you before you got back to your dorms." She said as she tried to catch her breath, "Sorry I ran all the way from my rooms."

"What for?" He tried to snap, though he had to admit that it didn't have his usual edge to it.

Hermione must have noticed, for her smile grew once more.

"This," she answered as she closed the gap between them.

Severus stared at her, confused, as she walked towards him. Every part of his brain was screaming at him to push her away but his body grew rigid as he waited to see what she was going to do. Her face moved closer to his and he couldn't believe what he thought was about to happen. His brain screamed even louder for him to move, to push her away, to do something to stop what was about to happen but he still found himself unable to move.

His eyes closed on their own just as her lips touched his and he felt his heart explode inside of his chest. Her lips were warm and soft and he could feel her smiling against his own lips. Whether a moment or an eternity passed he could not tell, but he felt time return back to normal when she began to draw back.

When he finally opened his eyes once more, he saw her watching him as she began to walk backwards the way she came.

"Happy New Year Severus," She called out as she left him standing alone in the hallway.

It took a while for Severus to move again, and even longer to wipe the stupid grin that marred his face.

…...

"Happy New Year Remus," Lily smiled as she came over to give him a kiss on the cheek.

"Happy New Year Lily," Remus answered, putting on his best fake smile.

After he had written his letter to Hermione, he had come downstairs to be with his friends for New Years. He had wanted to get all that business behind him before midnight so he could start the new year fresh. But now that it was done, Remus felt an overwhelming sadness coming over him. He no longer wanted to be around his friends. He wanted to lock himself up in a room alone and not see anyone for a long, long time.

But he didn't want to spoil the new year for anyone else with the news of his break up so he put on a fake smile and tried to join the rest of the party, trying not to miss her.

November 25th, 1997

"Did you hear about Snape and Remus?" Harry asked as he joined Ron on the couch in the common room.

Most of the other students had gone to bed long ago, so thankfully they were alone. There were more than a few things that Harry needed to talk to Ron about, and he needed privacy.

"Hospital wing, right?" Ron answered without looking at Harry.

"Yeah, they got caught dueling. They're not too far from Malfoy I hear," Harry said as he joined Ron in staring into the fire.

Harry waited for Ron to respond to his little nudge. It had been a few days since Ron had attacked Malfoy and he hadn't spoken about it yet which had Harry worried .Usually when Ron was upset enough to hurt someone, he came to Harry and shouted and got his anger out before he did anything. But this time he just attacked.

"Are you ever going to tell me why you attacked Malfoy?" Harry finally asked after what felt like hours of silence.

"Were you ever going to tell me about Hermione snogging Snape?" Ron snapped back as he turned his head towards Harry, "Yeah, that's right, I read your stupid letter."

"That was private Ron," Harry half shouted, wanting to keep quiet so that he didn't wake anyone up.

"Since when? You've been telling me everything in the letters anyway," Ron spat back. "I thought something had made you upset and I wanted to know what it was. She's my friend too."

"If she had really wanted you to know, she would have put them in a letter to you Ron," Harry scolded, "I know you've cared about her before. Did you think that perhaps she didn't tell you because she didn't want to hurt you?"

Ron stared back at the fire and didn't say another word. Harry waited for a while, waiting, hoping that Ron would keep talking but eventually he gave up.

"You can't go around attacking people because you're frustrated with everything going on with Hermione," Harry said, breaking the silence as he stood up, "Next time come find me and we can talk about it. You're not the only one upset by all this."

Harry left Ron in the common room to sulk as he made his way up to his dorm. He wished that Ron would just open up and they could talk about what was going on. Ron was the only one that Harry could talk to about Hermione now and he was getting frustrated too.

It was another couple of hours before Harry heard Ron get into bed. And before he fell asleep he prayed that Hermione would come back soon. He wasn't sure how much longer they could last without her.


	36. Chapter 36

_**There are no excuses. I've been really busy. Anyway, here's the chapter. Please read and review!**_

* * *

Lily was worried.

They had only been back from break for a couple of days and already she wanted to smash Hermione and Remus' heads together.

Remus had told them that they had broken up before they got back to school, but he had been very vague about the details. He hadn't even said who had broken up with who. She had owled Hermione, but never received a reply. And then, once Lily was able to talk to Hermione, she too was vague about the details.

Neither one would look at each other, or acknowledge the others existence. The mood of the room was tense with everything that was going unsaid and it was driving everyone mad. Only Hermione and Remus seemed not to notice that everyone else in the room wanted to murder them.

She'd talked to James that morning and asked if Remus had said anything to them during the night, but not even his best friends could get anything him.

All Lily wanted to do was fix everything and make it the way it was before, but she wasn't sure if she could. Though, she was damned sure going to try.

…...

That night, Hermione decided to skip dinner and stay in her room and study instead. She was too far behind on her plan to get home, and now that everything with Remus was finished, she found she had renewed interest in a task. She'd always heard stories of women who did crazy and stupid things after a break up, but she figured that she would be the first to time travel twenty years in the future to get away from an ex.

Dumbledore had found a journal that seemed to contain exactly the spell that she needed to get home. It was an obscure text that had apparently been buried within the ministry's vaults for years. When Dumbledore gave it to her, she hadn't asked how he had acquired it and she was quite sure that he wouldn't have told her the truth if she had.

But, of course, the journal had been written in some sort of random code. It was something that she had been expecting, in fact, most wizards developed their own form of code in case their thoughts and ideas ended up in the wrong hands. But she had been hoping that perhaps fate would be kind to her this time.

And although Dumbledore was able to come up with the journal, he was unable to find any sort of clue as to how to decode the thing. That task was going to be left to her, and Hermione was very much discouraged. While it could take as little as a couple of weeks, sometimes decoding these things could take years, and that was no longer a future she wanted to consider.

As Lily walked in the room a couple hours after dinner, Hermione did feel a little bit grateful that Lily wouldn't be able to understand the journal and snoop. She didn't look up from her desk when Lily walked in the room, but she could feel her restlessness.

Out of the corner of her eye, she could see Lily pacing in front of her bed, slowly. She wanted to talk. She wanted to talk badly. However talking was one thing that Hermione did not want to do. So she kept her head down and prayed that Lily would take the hint and do something else.

Five minutes passed, then ten, and then fifteen with Lily still pacing by the foot of her bed. It was obnoxious but Hermione knew that she could outlast Lily. At least, she hoped she could.

Five minutes later, and Hermione couldn't take it anymore.

"Will you please stop pacing!" She shouted from her desk.

"Well look who's finally speaking to me," Lily smirked as she finally sat down on her bed.

"I spoke to you this morning," Hermione commented as she continued to stare down at her desk.

"Hardly," Lilly murmured, before continuing in a louder voice, "So are you ever going to tell me what happened?"

"What happened with what?" Hermione asked, pretending not to know what Lily was talking about.

She had been avoiding this conversation since New Years, though she knew that it was going to happen sometime. Lily would make sure of that. But that didn't mean that she had to help it along.

Lily knew what she was trying to do, but she was in no mood to play that sort of a game.

"What happened between you and Remus? We can all tell that it must have been something bad and neither one of you are talking."

"Perhaps we just don't want to talk about it," Hermione snapped at Lily, "it's not as though its any of your business."

"It becomes my business when it affects my friends," Lily replied curtly, "whatever is going on with the two of you is affecting everyone else. It's so tense and uncomfortable! So perhaps if you just talked to me about it and told me what happened, I could help."

"There's nothing you can do," Hermione answered quietly, "so it would be nice if you could just let it be."

Silence crept over the room and Hermione let herself believe that perhaps Lily would, in fact, drop the subject with the girl in question broke the silence.

"Did you break up with him because you're going back soon?"

If Hermione just said yes, she knew that Lily would take that as a final answer and ask her no more about what was going on. But although Hermione wasn't overly fond of talking about the truth, she didn't want to lie to Lily either.

"No, it's not because of that," Hermione answered after a long pause.

"Then what was it?"

Lily's insistence on knowing everything would eventually wear Hermione down anyway, she realized, so she thought that perhaps it would be better to just get it over with already.

"So you know about the fight that Remus got into with Severus, right?" Hermione began.

"Yes," Lily answered wairly, "but Remus never told us why it happened, and I just assumed that it was just him being stupid."

"Well it was," Hermione replied, "you see, Severus has been unknowingly helping me find a way back to my own time. We've been studying together twice a week, every week for a while now. I didn't want anyone to find out about it, because I know the history between you all. And I need Severus, he's the only one that can help. But I guess Peter saw us a couple of times and told Remus. Then when he asked me where I had been, I lied. So he assumed that I was cheating on him with Snape,"

"Well are you?" Lily interrupted.

"No!" Hermione answered sharply, "I never cheated on Remus. But I guess he didn't believe me and attacked Severus anyway. And we never really recovered. He must not have believed me entirely and then on New Years, just before midnight, he sent me this," Hermione finished, handing the letter over to Lily.

Lily took the letter and Hermione could see that she was reading quickly.

"That miserable bastard," Lily whispered just enough for Hermione to hear before her eyes began to scan the page again.

"He really needs to learn better timing," Lily said after she'd gone over the letter three more times, "I'm so sorry about this. We were trying to talk sense into him the entire holiday, but I guess nothing got through. I'm sorry that he ruined your new year."

And at that, Hermione wasn't sure that she wanted to continue. She thought that Lily should know everything that happened, and Hermione was eager to talk about it with someone who could actually talk back to her. But she was worried about how Lily would respond. Then again, there was no way of knowing how Lily would react until Hermione told her.

So she ripped off the metaphorical band-aid and blurted out very quickly, "I kissed Severus on new years."

She watched Lily and waited for her reaction, but none came. Lily just stared at her, a blank expression on her face. Time passed, but Hermione wasn't sure how much, as she continued to stare at Lily. And still, there was no reaction. And so, in a mild panic, Hermione began to explain.

"That night, Severus and I had been talking and we were getting along pretty alright and then the letter from Remus came so I went back to my rooms. And then after I read the letter, I was so upset and I had an idea that the whole reason why Remus had broken up with me was because he thought I was cheating with Severus, which I never was. So I found Severus and kissed him at midnight."

"So you willing kissed Snape," Lily said after a few moments of silence.

"Yes," Hermione answered pathetically.

"Because you were mad that Remus broke up with you because he thought you had been kissing Snape," Lily continued.

"Yes," Hermione answered again.

"You know that doesn't make very much sense, right?"

"I know," Hermione half shouted, "believe me, I know. I don't know what I was thinking and believe me, it has not been making studying with Severus very easy."

"So you're still seeing him?"

"Well I have to, I need him to help me get home. We haven't talked about it sense but honestly I haven't been trying too hard. It's just this giant elephant in the room and it has made things even more awkward than they were."

Lily nodded her head as though she agreed and they fell silent again. Hermione didn't know what to say. There wasn't much left _to_ say at this point. So she stared at Lily wand waited, hoping that she would say something that would make all of this better.

A few minutes later, Lily looked back at Hermione, a strange twinkle in her eye as she asked, "So, did you like it?"


	37. Chapter 37

_I know, I know. I suck. I promise the next update will not take this long. And, bonus, it shall include Severus' birthday :) Anyway, the next chapter is halfway done so it should only be a week or two before I get it up. I tried using a Beta recently and after a couple weeks of no contact I gave up. What do I need a beta for anyway? I know you all think I'm perfect to begin with ;) Just kidding. Anyway, Read and Review and Enjoy!_

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The castle was quiet. Dinner had been many hours ago and now many of the students, and faculty, found themselves in their beds.

Severus Snape, however, did not.

He was sitting at his desk, staring at the journal that lay there. Up until a month ago, he had spent nearly every available night trying to decode it. Up until a month ago, finding out what was contained in the journal had been the most important task of his life. Up until a month ago, it had been nearly the only thing that he cared about. And now Severus Snape wasn't sure how he felt.

He was pretty sure he knew what he would find if he read the journal now. Surely it contained the spell that she had used to leave. He had been trying for years to read what was in the journal, and know that he was sure what was in there, Snape wasn't sure if he wanted to keep trying.

All he wanted was to throw it away, give it to the library, remove it from his life, but every time he made a move to throw it in a bin he stalled. He couldn't bring himself to throw away his only chance at knowing if she was safe. Though he hated himself for it, he still cared about her. Though he hated himself for it, he wanted nothing more than for her to return safe. Though he hated himself for it, he wanted _her._

Which was why Severus Snape found himself staring at the journal on his desk. To throw it away would be giving up, but to keep it meant that he still cared, and that was not something he was comfortable admitting to himself.

Moments or hours may have passed as he stared. But Severus was yanked out of his musings when he heard a small knock on his door.

Thankfully the disturbance was enough to annoy him so when Severus addressed the person on the other side of the door, he sounded like his normal self.

"Go away," He shouted at the door.

"Now that's no way to greet a friend," Dumbledore remarked as he entered the room.

Severus made a small noise in his throat when he noticed the headmaster and for a moment, he thought that he would have rather seen Potter on the other side.

"What do you want Albus?" Severus asked.

"Is that the journal she was working on?" Dumbledore questioned, completely ignoring Severus, as he moved towards the desk.

"Not that it matters," Severus sneered, "but yes, it is. And I ask again, what do you want?"

"I just wanted to see how you were doing," Dumbledore smiled kindly, "make sure you and Remus weren't getting into any more arguments."

"At this time of night?" Severus spat, not in the mood for Albus' games.

"Also, I wanted to give you this," Dumbledore answered as he placed an aged roll of paper onto Severus desk.

"What is it?" Severus asked, eying the paper warily.

Albus had already turned away and had begun to make his way out of the room, when he called back to Severus, "I believe it's what you've been searching for."

Before Severus could question him further, Albus had already left, closing the door behind him. In all his years at Hogwarts, Severus had never been able to quite figure out how Albus got all of his information.

Once Severus was sure that Albus would not be coming back inside, he began to unroll the paper. For a moment, Severus could hardly believe his eyes. And once that moment was over, and Severus _did_ believe what he was seeing, he flew into a rage.

January 8th, 1977

"I hardly see how that's relevant Lily," Hermione answered quickly, hoping her roommate would give up on her questioning.

"It's not," Lily smiled, "but that doesn't mean that I will stop asking."

"It also doesn't mean that I'll answer you," Hermione countered.

Lily's smile brightened, "You know that just means that you did and you're too ashamed to admit it."

"Or perhaps it means that I just don't want to answer such a personal question."

"Oh come on," Lily pleaded, "you told me everything after you and Remus kissed for the first time. We're girls. Talking about kissing boys is just what we do!"

It had been a long day and, once again, Hermione reminded herself that Lily never gave up once she wanted to know something. But she wouldn't be Hermione if she didn't at least put up a bit of a fight.

"Alright," Hermione conceded, "but you can't tell anyone. Remus already thinks I betrayed him, I don't want anyone else to think that he's right."

"I'm not daft," Lily answered, sounding just a tiny bit hurt, "I know not to tell the boys. So go on!"

"You're right, I did like kissing Snape I think."

"You think?"

"Well everything happened so fast!

"So do you think that it's going to happen again?"

"Probably not," Hermione answered after a few minutes of thinking, "The couple of times that I've seen him since then have been uncomfortable. I'm fairly certain that he doesn't want me to kiss him again and I don't think I want to make things worse."

"But just think, if the two of you get married then you and I could be related!" Lily half shouted with excitement.

"And here I thought you would be disgusted by my kissing Snape," Hermione couldn't help but laugh.

"I always try to find the silver lining," Lily answered happily.

For the rest of the night, Lily grilled Hermione about Snape and what she was going to do but there wasn't much Hermione could say except that she didn't know. Ever since it had happened, she hadn't really been forced to think about it. It wasn't as though she wanted to forget about the kiss, she just didn't like thinking about what should happen next.

The next day was Snape's birthday and they were scheduled to meet up. For a brief moment, she considered getting him a gift before she figured that all it would do was make things even more uncomfortable. So perhaps the best present she could get him was clearing the air, making sure he knew that she wouldn't be kissing him anymore and they could both forget it ever happened, if he wanted.

But only if he wanted.


	38. Chapter 38

_**Hey everyone! It's me with yet another update. I've started re-reading the entire Harry Potter series lately and that's really been helping me with writing BV so updates should be coming more regularly. Now I do have one request for you all. When I was posting the first edition of BV, I was sent a picture that one of my readers drew for BV. It was a wonderful picture of Snape and Hermione, with a snake and an eagle faded into the background. I had a printed copy of that picture on my wall for years but I've moved five times in the last three years and it somehow got lost in the shuffle. I can't for the life of me remember who sent it, I've tried every name I could remember, searched through all my reviewers, but if someone could remember who sent it to be I would be very grateful. It was my absolute favorite thing that anyone has made for one of my fics and I don't want it to disappear. Also, I was reading through some of my older reviews and I noticed that a lot of you who are reading this now also read my old version of BV and I wanted to ask yall this. I still have all my copies of old BV on my computer, so if you'd like, I could post them. But it's up to yall. Anyway, I hope you guys like the update and please keep those reviews coming. I love getting feedback from yall :) Well that's all I have to say for now so as always, please Read and Review!**_

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January 9th, 1977

Days like this Severus was glad that he generally went unnoticed in his school. No one came up to him wishing him happy birthday, he wasn't presented with gifts that he wouldn't use, and he generally wasn't bothered. It was all he could really ask for on his birthday.

Well that, and to not have to go and meet up with Hermione tonight. It was his birthday and Severus figured that was a good enough excuse to get out of an awkward meeting. Things had been nearly intolerable since she had kissed him on new years. Every word was guarded, every gesture made more careful. She hadn't mentioned what had happened since that night, so he assumed that she regretted what she had done.

It wasn't as though it was a subject that he was all to willing to visit. He still wasn't quite sure how he felt about the kissing, which troubled him deeply. She was annoying, demanding, bossy, and her hair had a life of his own. Though she was smart, she was in no way like the girls he had fancied before and the fact that he couldn't bring himself to admit that he disliked the kissing bothered him.

But neither could he admit that he enjoyed it _because_ she was annoying, demanding, and bossy with bad hair. She had gone form merely being a vague annoyance to someone that he thought about regularly, all without his consent.

That night, Severus showed up on time. And there he waited for around ten minutes for Hermione. It wasn't normal for her to be late, and with every passing moment Severus became more and more hopeful that perhaps she wouldn't show up at all.

Once fifteen minutes had passed, Severus had convinced himself that she wasn't going to show and he prepared to go back to his room for the evening. He was hardly out of the door when he saw her walking towards him.

"Bugger," he said quietly to himself.

"You're late," He scolded once she was close enough to listen.

"Not by much," she answered quickly as she went through the door, "are you coming?"

Disappointed that he wasn't going to be able to spend the evening alone, he followed her inside, grumbling to himself.

Tonight was going to be an extremely difficult night for the both of them. They had worked their way up to experimenting with the imperius curse. Tonight they were going to be working their way though larger targets, beginning with mice and hopefully ending with one another.

Although it was a curse that Severus had used before on smaller creatures, he had never before used it on a person and never had it been used on him. And the fact that Hermione was going to be the one casting it made Severus more nervous than he had ever been in his life.

"Are you ready to start?" Hermione asked him as he finally walked into the room.

Nodding his head, Severus conjured up some mice for them to practice on. It took a half an hour for Hermione to ger her mouse to do what she wished, while Severus' mouse sat happily on the ceiling. It took her slightly less time for her to overcome the bird, though Severus was still forced to wait for her.

It was a whole three hours before Severus found himself having to try, though to be fair, he had never tried on an animal as large as a horse. But they were nearly through all the creatures they had planned and were soon coming up to the point where they were supposed to practice on one another.

Few words had been exchanged so far. Mostly it had been Severus offering her advice lined with sarcasm while Hermione had stayed abnormally quiet which Severus found annoying and yet was grateful for.

Another hour passed before Severus found himself standing in front of Hermione, his wand laying carefully by his side.

"I will kill you if you have me do anything stupid," Severus growled as he watched her raise his wand towards him.

"This is why we're doing you first, remember?" Hermione rolled her eyes, "So don't worry and just try not to fight back."

Snape grumbled as he readied himself for the curse. He saw the words form on her lips, and all of a sudden, he found he wasn't worried anymore. His shoulders relaxed, his hands stopped clenching, and he no longer cared what happened to him. His feet began to move on their own, as did his arms and he found he couldn't be bothered to see exactly what they were doing or where he was going. He could hear a voice and his head turned to look at Hermione, who seemed to be speaking to him.

An order from Hermione made his head turn and all of a sudden, it was easier to pay attention to what she was saying. He heard her calling his name though his hazy ears and he strained to pay closer attention.

"I thought it would be easier this way," Hermione began with a guilty look on her face, "with you not being able to react and all. I just wanted say, because it's your birthday and all, that I am sorry for what I did on new years. I made a rash decision without considering your feelings. And I promise never to kiss you again, unless you make it clear that you want me to that is."

Severus had a hard time making the words stick in his head, and though he was enjoying the lightness that he was feeling, something in the back of his mind screamed for it to stop. Very slowly, the idea that he should begin fighting crept into his mind and he wondered whether it should be up to him whether or not he wanted to be running around the room.

Just as his rational mind began to fight back, the lightness was gone and the spell was ended. He rubbed his eyes to help them get there focus back as he made his way back to where Hermione was standing.

"I felt you fighting back so I stopped, I hope you don't mind," she began sheepishly.

"No, thank you," Severus said quietly, as he remembered what she had just told him.

He watched a surprised expression crossed her face, and before he could ask her why, he realized that he had said thank you. It was perhaps the first time he had said it to anyone that wasn't a professor or his mother.

"Are you ready?" He answered in a sterner tone of voice, not wanting her to think that he had suddenly gone soft.

He waived his wand and said the curse after she had nodded her head. Though it took a few moments for Severus to adjust, he found that an unresistant mind of a person was nearly as easy to control as the horses he had been practicing. So as he instructed Hermione to move around random bits of furniture, his mind wandered to what she said to him.

Though he wanted to focus on the apology, to accept that she very much regretted her actions, she had stated that she wouldn't kiss him again unless he wanted it too. Even Severus couldn't think himself out of that. She had made it pretty plain that she was at least open to the idea of kissing him and his stomach fluttered.

Anger flooded his chest as he watched her build the chairs into an acceptable looking fortress. How dare she do this to him! How dare she make his stomach flutter! He hadn't asked for her to kiss him. He hadn't wanted it and yet she had done it anyway and now, all he could think about was kissing her again.

His mind raced for something that he could do to retaliate. To pay her back for putting her in his head. And just like that, Severus had an idea. If she was going to be stuck in his head, he was going to put himself in hers.

Severus was no stranger to women. He had been around them his entire life, and had even been in a couple of very short lived relationships, so he had a decent working knowledge of kissing. And since all of this had begun when she had stolen a kiss from him, he was going to steal one from her.

He had her stop building the fortress of chairs and had her walk over to where he was standing. Briefly he wondered if his face had the same vague quality when he was under the influence from the curse and he hoped to Merlin that it hadn't. Saying thank you had been bad enough.

Severus smiled as he watched her move as close in front of him as he dared. He could already feel her starting to fight against the curse but there was no way he was going to let her get away before he got his revenge.

He had her put her arms around his neck while he put one hand around her waist, keeping his wand firmly gripped in his other hand. He had her head move closer to his, while he closed the gap between him. He felt her being to fight back, hard, when he touched his lips to hers. It was very distracting, keeping her under the curse while he snogged her against her will.

It was an interesting feeling, snogging someone while they were under your control. It was almost as though he was snogging himself. He was the one making sure she reacted to him, he was the one making her part her lips, although when he was remembering this scene later in the night he never recalled making her tongue react like that.

Overall it was one of the more pleasant snogs Severus had ever had, especially once she stopped fighting him. Though he wasn't sure if that was because she had become accepting of the inevitable, or because she was beginning to enjoy it.

When an acceptable amount of time had passed, Severus stopped and backed away from her and once his hand moved off of her waist, he felt her mind begin to fight back again and yet he still kept her under the curse. He knew that if he let her go now, she was sure to kill him. So Severus gathered his things, turned to Hermione, and smiled.

"So I believe we are done for the night," He began backing out of the room, "I will be going back to my rooms now, but don't worry. I won't be letting you out of the curse until I am safely past our portrait. And by the way," he countinued with the greasiest grin he could conjure, "_thank you_ for my birthday present."


	39. Chapter 39

_**Told you guys I'd be updating soon :) It's been little more than a week since my last update. Now, before you read this chapter I have a couple of things that I want to say. First, this chapter is shorter than the rest because I have been looking forward to doing this scene since I started this story. I love it. Second, I'm sorry if you think what I do with the characters in this chapter is OOC for them. I honestly don't think so. Part of the reason why I love Severus is because I believe that this is how he behaves sometimes. Third, I want to say THANK YOU for reading so far. I was searching through my past chapters, looking to see if I had done something yet, and I realized just how much I have written and to have so many of you still reading is fantastic. So yeah, thank you guys. Y'all are awesome and I absolutely adore your feedback. Anyway, next chapter shouldn't take long. I've been on a bit of a writing kick lately so I hope you all enjoy. And as always, please Read and Review!**_

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November 29th, 1997

He had cancelled classes for the day. Every Severus knew when he was too dangerous to be around students. He had missed every meal, preferring instead to stand in the Headmasters office, waiting for him to appear. However the headmaster had yet to make an appearance in his office that day.

The thought of leaving and coming back another time didn't even occur to Severus. He was too angry to be rational, too angry to give up. A number of other teachers had shown up in Dumbledores office, but they had all left very quickly when they caught sight of the look that Severus was giving them.

Severus was known as an unpleasant man. He was known for his temper, for his mood swings, for the grudges that he held. But overall, people knew him as a member of the order. A man who, though unpleasant, had ultimately chosen to work for the good side, for the Order. It was not often that people remembered that he was also a Death Eater. That the Dark Mark had been burned into his forearm. That he had worked for He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named for the majority of his life. That he had done unspeakable things for years. That he was, indeed, a murderer.

And right now, Severus felt much less like a member of the Order, and much more like a Death Eater. He had never felt such anger, such pure unrelenting anger as he did right now.

And it was all directed at one man.

It was late in the night when Dumbledore finally stepped through the doors of his office. Severus was standing at the other end, staring through the window, not daring to turn around yet for fear he would do something that would land him, finally, in Azkaban.

Seemingly oblivious to the waves of rage emanating off of Severus, Dumbledore began their conversation by scolding.

"The house elves are still cleaning your classroom Severus, you're going to have to find somewhere else to teach for the next few days. Apparently some of the smashed potions combined in some very unpleasant ways. Though they did find what looked like the beginnings of an entirely different universe growing on one of your old books."

Severus barely heard the old man has he gripped the journal, with the parchment Dumbledore had given him the night before safely tucked inside, until his knuckles burned with the effort.

"How could you?" Severus whispered harshly, still keeping his back to Dumbledore.

The vague smile that always seemed to grace Dumbledore's face fell.

"It was for your own good," Dumbledore answered and he made his way over to where Severus was, taking every step as slowly as possible.

"You. Destroyed. My. Life." Severus spat back.

"Now I think that's a bit harsh," Dumbledore replied kindly, softly placing his hand on Severus' shoulder.

Severus ripped himself away and finally turned to face the old wizard. For the first time in his life he wished that at any moment, he would feel the dark mark burn on his arm, calling him away. Every inch of him longed to curse Dumbledore, to hurt him, to make him feel some of Severus' pain. If only the Dark Lord would call, he would at least get to hex _somebody._ And perhaps that would be enough.

"Harsh?" Severus questioned through barely unclenched teeth, "You know that I have been looking for this for twenty years, and yet you chose to hide it from me till now? You've known who she was for _twenty years_ and you chose to hide that as well!"

"I've always trusted you completely Severus," Dumbledore began softly, "but if you could please lower your wand. I wouldn't want you to do anything rash."

To be honest, Severus hadn't even noticed that he had lifted his wand. He was so focused on his anger, his body seemed to be acting on its own. However, despite his desire to keep it pointed in Albus' face, he lowered his wand and placed it safely in his pocket.

"Thank you," Dumbledore continued in the same soft tone, "and you don't know Severus, perhaps when Miss Granger gets back, the two of you can continue where you left off."

Very few things frightened Dumbledore. Severus Snape's smile was on the list. It happened so rarely, and never for a happy reason. It reminded Dumbledore of the way Grindewald used to smile whenever he grew angry and though Dumbledore knew that Snape was no where near as powerful, he knew that Snape could be just as dangerous.

"So has that been your plan Albus?" Severus began in an alarmingly calm voice, a broad smile pasted on his face, "You have manipulated my entire life. You used her memory to trick me into spying for you. I have risked my life countless times because I trusted you! And now I find out that for twenty years you have been lying to me. And now that you have finally told me the truth, you expect me to be grateful? Because now I could possibly get back together with a girl that I dated twenty years ago? Have you gone mad old man?"

"I only thought," Albus began once Severus had taken a breath.

"No!" Severus shouted, "I will not listen to your excuses anymore. I only came for this," He continued as he lifted the book, "you _will_ tell me what's in here."

"I'm afraid I don't know Severus." Albus answered, all of a sudden sounding very, very tired.

"Like hell you don't," Severus spat as he began to pace, "you wouldn't have let her go without checking the spell first."

This time, it was Albus' turn to smile. "I don't know Severus, because I was not the one to help her with it. You were."

Severus stopped pacing and whipped his head towards Dumbledore, parts of his hair getting stuck on his nose. "Excuse me?" He asked sharply, doing his best to detach his hair from his face in the most menacing way he could manage.

His attempt must have been more comical than menacing for Albus just continued to smile.

"In your seventh year, I had the two of you practicing the Dark Arts together. I had _you_ teaching her. It was all leading up to her trying to get back here. So if you need some hope, take some now. Trust in your skill as a teacher because, when she arrives safely back, it will be because of you."

Severus knew that Albus was expecting him to be happy with this news. Severus knew that Albus' smile was ment to be comforting. Severus knew that Albus assumed that all the anger Severus was holding in his chest was because he was worried for Hermione.

But Albus was wrong, _dead wrong._

In a flash, Severus Snape had whipped out his wand and pressed it close up against Albus neck. If Severus wanted, he could successfully use the killing curse. And Albus wasn't attempting to defend himself yet. The old food probably assumed that Severus would never go that far. How little Albus really knew.

"So I was just a pawn to be used by the two of you? Was that your plan Albus? Lie to poor old greasy Severus, tell him it will be for extra credit, and have him show the little _bitch_ all of his tricks? How amusing she must have found it all, finally getting the chance to get some revenge on her cruel old potions master. The two of you destroyed my entire life Albus and I promise you, you both will pay for it."

Though his heart longed for vengeance, though every cell in his body was screaming to make him pay, a bit of his rational mind was peeking through. Though he would never admit it to anyone, he still wanted her to be safe. And there were still secrets that Albus was not telling. He hated them both, that was true, but he still loved her and though Albus had done nothing but manipulate Severus, he was the only one left to trust.

Severus began to lower his wand, slowly, almost against his will when he felt it. The burning on his arm. And, for once, joy filled his heart instead of fear. It seemed as though he would get to take out his anger on someone after all.

And for the second time that night, Severus Snape smiled.


	40. Chapter 40

_**So I realized that there was a bit a few chapters that I forgot to post, a bit that would explain why Remus sent the letter. So I've re-submitted chapter 33 with the added bit on the end. I've been writing a lot on this story lately, so updates should continue to stay steady like this. I hope you all like it. There's not much for me to say this time, just thank you all for reading. And as always, please Read and Review!**_

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January 9th, 1977

"You're a great prat, you know that?" Lily asked as she smacked Remus on the back of the head with her book.

"What for?" Remus asked as he rubbed the back of his head.

"Why are you hitting Moony?" Sirius asked as he waited for Peter to move one of his chess pieces.

Peter just sniggered as Lily took her seat on the couch next to where James was reading.

"Has he done something?" James asked, looking up from his book.

"Yes he has, something _stupid." _Lily answered as she wormed her way under James' arm, cuddling up against his chest.

"If I did, I'm sure I don't remember what it is," Remus said as he poked his nose back into his book.

Lily grabbed one of James' discarded papers, crumpled it up, and threw it as Remus who was sitting in the chair next to the couch.

"And I ask again, what was that for?" Remus asked, throwing the paper back at her, wondering what he had done to cause Lily to pick on him.

"She showed me the letter you know."

Remus' face grew cold and he looked Lily directly in the eyes, "I don't want to talk about it."

"What letter?" James asked, half curious, half still trying to study.

"Well you bloody well will!" Lily demanded, ignoring James.

"You do know it's none of your business, right?" Remus answered coolly.

"You know," Lily said with a vague smile on her face, "that's what she said as well, and like I told you, she showed me the letter."

"What was I supposed to do?" Remus replied lamely, "She was snogging someone else."

"Who's snogging someone?" Sirius asked, interested now that the conversation had turned towards snogging.

"No one," Lily answered sharply before turning back to Remus, "and she wasn't snogging anyone. I promise you Remus, she would have told me if she was."

"She doesn't tell you everything you know."

"Besides, if she wasn't snogging him, why was she lying?" Peter interjected with a hint of triumph in his voice, glad that he was finally in on a secret conversation.

"Are we talking about Hermione?" Sirius questioned.

Lily ignored both Peter and Sirius, "Of course she does Remus," she began with a small smile, "She even told me about that time when the two of you were up late and she did that thing that made you"

"Alright!" Remus shouted quickly, his face going all red. "Fine, she tells you most everything. But you didn't see what I did Lily."

"And what did you see Remus?"

"I saw _him_ coming out of her room over the holidays, very late at night, when I came up to surprise her. And he was smiling Lily. There's no way I could misunderstand that."

"So Hermione was snogging someone on the side?" James had finally put down his book and was now listening intently.

Lily just waved a hand in James' direction, dismissing him, "I'm sure there's a reasonable explanation Remus."

"For what he was doing there and why she never mentioned it to you?" Remus sneered, "If you can think of one, I'd like to hear it."

"I'm sorry," she answered quietly after a moments pause.

Remus was right, there was no reason that she could think of for why Snape would have been with Hermione until late and he was also right that Hermione hadn't mentioned it. But she had also promised Lily that she hadn't snogged Severus until New Years so there had to be a good explanation for everything.

Lily wished there was something she could do for Remus, something that she could say to convince him that he had made a horrible mistake. Though even if she could, she wasn't sure if Hermione would go back to him now, not after snogging Severus.

"What the hell are the two of you talking about?" Sirius asked from his chess game.

"Nothing," Lily answered quickly.

"Moony?"

At that point, Hermione burst through the common room door, grabbed Lily by the hand, and began to drag her up to their room.

"Well I guess this is goodnight," Lily said as she followed the very angry looking Hermione.

"What was all that about?" James asked curiously from the couch.

"I have an idea," Remus answered sourly before going back to his book.

The rest of the night, James and Sirius pestered Remus with questions about the conversation with Lily, but now matter how much he protested, they kept asking. For once, however, Remus did not give in and all four boys went to bed that night feeling quite annoyed.

…..

"I can't believe he took advantage of you like that!" Lily shouted from her bed.

"Well to be fair I did sort of tell him that I wouldn't mind," Hermione replied rather sheepishly.

"That doesn't matter Hermione," Lily continued, "if James ever did something like that to me, I'd hex the life right out of him."

Hermione smiled, "That's because you have a horrible temper Lily."

"True," Lily smiled back, "but you shouldn't let him get away with it."

"What do you suggest I do? Find a way to snog him back without his consent? I already did that at new years."

"I was going to suggest slipping something in his drink to cover him in boils." Lily's smile grew, "but all you seem to want to do is snog him back. Is it possible that you have feelings for Snape?"

"Of course not!" Hermione answered quickly, "He's just a decent snog. And it's not going to happen again."

Lily rolled her eyes, "If you say so. But there is something that I have to ask you about."

"What?"

"I was talking to Remus," Lily began, "and he sort of mentioned why he broke up with you. He came up to Hogwarts on Christmas day to surprise you. He said that it was late when he got to the castle and he was almost to the rooms when he saw Snape coming out and he was smiling."

Lily watched as Hermione grew pale, "So is it true? Were you really cheating on Remus with Snape? You can tell me, I promise I wont say anything."

Hermione didn't answer her, but instead, Lily watched as Hermione began to lift her shirt with shaky hands. And suddenly a great, white scar came into view.

"Oh merlin!" Lily mumbled as her hand moved towards it. "What the hell happened?"

"Snape and I were practicing a difficult curse when mine backfired. Snape had to spend the next couple of days fixing me up. He saved my life, truth be told. That's why he was coming out of my rooms on Christmas, but I'm not sure why he was smiling."

"Well I'm glad you're alright," Lily said after a while, "and I'm sure if you explain what happened to Remus the two of you could work things out."

"And have him and the others kill my only shot at getting back home?" Hermione laughed, "All he would hear was Snape and curse. It's much better if he doesn't know."

"But you could get him back."

"I don't think I want him back anymore," Hermione answered, "I still care about him but after the way he acted. He can't trust me anymore and I'm not sure I could trust him."

"And I guess since you're already snogging Snape," Lily teased.

"Snogged Snape," Hermione said quickly, "past tense. I don't expect that it will happen again. He's just a decent snog."

"So was James."

"It's not the same Lily. Snape's a mean, miserable, bastard."

"So was James." Lily smiled.


	41. Chapter 41

_**Well I have for you here an extra long chapter to make up for my lack of updates this past month :) I hope you like it, I had a TON of fun writing it. Also, I noticed that I can now create a forum for my stories and such so if y'all would like me to set one up I will. That way I could update you more often on how chapters are coming and more readily answer any questions that you may have. Other than that, there's not much for me to say this time round. Next chapter shouldn't take long to get out :) And I hope you all like this. And as always, Read and Review. Hearing for you all helps get the chapters out faster :)**_

* * *

It had been an extraordinarily boring week for Hermione. Severus had sent an owl on Monday saying that there was no need for them to meet up that night since they were going to be doing something different at the end of the week. Although she wanted to find him and ask him what was going to be so different, she was grateful for the break.

At the moment Hermione had more work than she knew what to do with. It was nearly as much as she'd had in third year, though this time she didn't have a time turner to help her out. She hadn't been in the common room much as things with Remus and the others were still quite frosty. She didn't dare go near the library in case she ran into Severus and it was far to cold to be going outside. So she had spent nearly all of her time up in the room she shared with Lily, her nose stuck deep inside of a book.

Dumbledore had been lucky enough to find what he suspected was the code to the journal and so Hermione spent what time she could spare from her homework trying to figure it out. It was going to be a slow process, especially since Hermione couldn't seem to find much time to work on it. Though she had to admit, part of her wanted to take as long as she could. Over the past few months she had grown quite close with Lily and it was difficult to work on a getting back to her time when she knew that she was really working towards going back to a time when her new best friend was dead.

There had been a moment during the week when Hermione had been working on the journal and Lily had come busting through the door with some long story about what the Marauders had done recently to earn detention and Hermione found it difficult not to bust out into tears.

Yes, things were frosty with the boys but how in the world was she supposed to say goodbye to them now? How was she supposed to simply disappear and let Peter destroy all of their lives? It was most certainly going to be the most difficult day of her life.

Though most days it was easy to put those thoughts away in the back of her mind, especially when Remus was refusing to make eye contact. Hermione knew that things would be different once she and Remus broke up, but she never expected things to be this bad. After all, he had been the one to break up with her, he had no right to act as though he was the victim.

"Meeting up with Snape again tonight?" Lily asked as she walked into their room.

"Yeah," Hermione checked the time, "I should be leaving in a bit."

"Remus isn't down there," Lily said as she caught sight of Hermione's worried expression.

"I wouldn't mind if he was," Hermione answered unconvincingly.

Lily didn't respond, only shot Hermione a look that spoke of how much she didn't believe her.

"I didn't do anything to him so there's no reason why I should feel guilty meeting up with Severus."

"Well you are snogging him," Lily smiled.

Hermione blushed instantly, "Snogged. And I only did so after Remus broke up with me so there's no reason why I should feel guilty about meeting up with Severus."

"And yet you do."

Hermione buried her face in her hands. "When did my life get so complicated?" She moaned.

"I think it may have started when you managed to get yourself stranded twenty years in the past," Lily laughed.

"Yes but it was my choice to start snogging my professors." Hermione added lamely.

"I'm sorry?" Lily whipped around to face Hermione looking surprised, "Your _professors?"_

Hermione let out a groan, "I never told you that, did I?"

"No," Lily smiled, "and now you're going to tell me everything."

"Remus was only my professor for one year so with him it wasn't too bad but with Severus," Hermione dropped off.

"What? Was he a teacher that you always fancied or something?" Lily joked.

"No," Hermione answered back quickly, unsure of how much to tell Lily. She didn't want to give too much of the future away although, Hermione thought bitterly, it wasn't as though Lily was going to be alive to see any of it. "He was always so much more that cruel. He loathed anyone that wasn't from Slytherin but he hated those in Gryffindor most. I usually felt the brunt of it, along with a couple of others. His an old, vile, cruel, untrustworthy man from my time. I know he's not exactly cheerful now, but I still have no idea how he went from this to the man that I've known. If it was just a matter of getting used to the idea of snogging Severus, I think I could. But I'm not sure if I'll ever be alright with the idea of kissing Professor Snape."

Lily was quiet for a while, looking thoughtful, before she spoke up, "Well were you planning on continuing your relationship with Remus once you got back?"

"No," Hermione answered almost without thinking.

"So why should you not have some fun snogging Snape? Whatever he is in the future, that's still twenty years from now. And perhaps it will give you something to tease him about when you do go back."

Hermione smiled despite the sadness that she had begun to feel as she always did when she they talked of her going back. "How do you always manage to find something good in every situation?"

"It's a gift," Lily beamed.

Hermione laughed as she checked the time, she should have left to see Severus five minutes ago.

"I'm going to be late," She said quickly as she gathered her things.

"Don't forget a breath freshening charm before you start snogging!" Lily shouted loudly as Hermione ran out the door.

Her cheeks flushed with red as she walked down into the common room and then immediately drained of color when she caught the look on Remus' face. He wasn't supposed to be in the common room. For a moment it looked as though perhaps he wanted to say something cruel and Hermione quickened her pace out of the common room. Whatever Remus wanted to say, he could keep it to himself. He lost the right to say anything to her the night he sent that letter.

She was a mix of odd feelings as she walked towards her meeting place with Severus. Having to speak to Severus again after the snogging last week was going to be interesting and the idea of having to talk about it made butterflies appear in her stomach. Her conversation with Lily had brought about nothing but more confusion. She _did_ enjoy kissing Severus but she still couldn't get the idea of who exactly he was going to become out of her head. Soon, _very _soon, he was going to dedicated his life to You-Know-Who and become a Death Eater and there was no way to sugar coat that. And seeing Remus looking like that had made her feel, well, she still wasn't quite sure what that had made her feel. She was angry, yes, but there was something else too. Sadness? Shame? Perhaps even a touch of guilt?

Though she was innocent of ever cheating, she couldn't say that Remus had been overreacting. Yes, he should have trusted her, but everything she had done lately seemed to prove that he had been right all along.

"You're late."

Severus' voice seemed to lack some of its usual sharpness, Hermione thought as she walked inside and avoided his gaze, or was she just imagining it?

"Aren't I always?" She answered back sarcastically.

"Unfortunately yes," Severus shot back.

Apparently it wasn't her imagination.

"So what are we doing?" She asked as she gazed around the room, trying to guess, while still avoiding Severus' face.

Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Severus wave his wand around and mutter something under his breath. A large table appeared in the middle of the room and as she walked towards it, she could hear Severus rummaging around in a bag. After a few moments he placed a cauldron in front of her and carefully unpacked the rest of the materials in the bag.

"So we're making a potion?"

"Your powers of deduction are incredible," Severus sneered as he began to place a number of ingredients in front of her, some she recognized and some she didn't.

She felt the left side of her body grow warm, reacting to the closeness of his arm as he laid things out in front of her. She loathed the involuntary reaction.

"What are we going to be making?" She asked, trying to sound harsher than she normally would. Even though Snape didn't know what sort of reaction he had gotten from her, she felt as though she needed to compensate for it.

"Does it matter?" He answered calmly.

"Of course it does," She snapped quickly.

He placed a bit of parchment in front of her with directions on how to make the mystery potion. She read over them quickly, thinking that perhaps it was something that she could recognize.

"Unless I am greatly mistaken, you wont recognize this potion."

"You don't know everything about me," Hermione answered lamely as she met his eyes for the first time that night.

Hermione thought how strange it was that Severus was able to smile without ever having to move his lips.

"According to Dumbledore, we should not just be focusing on spells, but potions as well. This comes from a very rare book of mine so unless you have been sneaking into my room at night to read it, you will not know what we are making."

Hermione couldn't think of a smart answer, so she kept her mouth quiet. So Dumbledore thought she should know about potions as well? Perhaps he had found something, a potion, that would help her get back. But if he had, then why hadn't he told her about it?

"You can start if you wish," Severus instructed from his spot beside her.

He was standing too close for Hermione's comfort and at the sound of his voice, the left side of her body began to grow warm again. She moved her head so that her hair hid her blush and she read the first few instructions.

Years of being Snape's student had prepared her for this moment and it was not too difficult to read his nearly illegible handwriting. Though due to recent events, she felt the need to insult Severus as much as she could.

"Are you sure you're not part troll?" She sneered as she moved her face closer to the parchment, as though she was having trouble reading.

"Unfortunately for you, I am not," Severus responded easily and Hermione noticed that he wasn't reading from a parchment, "or else I would have been just your type, wouldn't I?"

Hermione's lips formed a tight line on her face and she tried to keep herself from scratching his eyes out and she went back to focusing on her potion. Though she was angry at the way he was speaking to her, she was quite glad that he hadn't brought up what had happened the last time they had met.

She knew that she should still be angry with him for forcing her to kiss him while she was under his control but she wasn't. Instead she felt nothing but relief that he seemed to want to gloss over what had happened just as much as she did.

They continued to work silently for the next half an hour with Hermonie making occasional glances over at Severus and his cauldron. While his was a deep, thin red that could have easily been mistaken for boiling blood, hers was a pale shade of purple and was nearly as thick as glue. Something had to be wrong but there was no way she was going to give Severus the satisfaction of asking for help. Besides, she was following the instructions exactly, if something was wrong, it was his fault not hers.

"Your potion is off color," Severus remarked, moving closer to her cauldron.

"If it is, it's your fault, I'm following your instructions perfectly," Hermione answered quickly.

A small smirked crossed Severus' face, "You always do."

This time, Hermione could not hide the blush that exploded on her face and she longed to slap Severus smartly across his face.

"You're stirring to forcefully," Severus said finally, though he could not keep the smile off of his face or out of his voice. Her blushing must have amused him greatly.

"I am not!" Hermione defended rather weakly.

"Then show me how you are stirring, about three passes should do." He instructed.

Hermione stirred her cauldron three times, doing her best to concentrate on being smooth. Though that was hard, given the closeness of Severus and the embarrassment she was still feeling.

"As I said, you're doing it too forcefully."

When she noticed Severus making a move towards her she backed away quickly which only made his smile wider. "You have two choices. I could show you how to do this properly or I could curse you again and instruct you that way. Though the first would be quicker, I am quite partial to the second, just as you seemed to be last time."

She couldn't help it. She didn't even remember telling her hand to move. But in a flash it had moved across Severus' face and Hermione noticed happily that his cheek was red now too. Unfortunately her slap seemed to do nothing to darken his mood.

"This would be so much simpler if you just admitted that you want to snog me again," Severus smiled.

"I snogged you against my will," Hermione half shouted, "don't delude yourself into thinking that I want to do it again."

"I may have forced you last time, but you came to me willingly on New Years."

"Temporary insanity," Hermione claimed.

Severus raised an eyebrow, "And tonight? You can't come within twelve inches of me without blushing."

"Did you ever think that perhaps it's simply due to the fact that you make my skin crawl?" Hermione bit back. She did not like the way this conversation was going and she wanted to end it as quickly as possible.

Severus closed the gap between them before Hermione could react or pick up her wand. His hand was gripped tightly on her waist and pulled her tightly against him while the other traced a faint line along her arm. "Do I?" He whispered against her ear.

She willed herself to pull out of his grasp, to push him away, to curse him so harshly he never came near her again but something stilled her hand. She felt the rumble in his chest before she heard the strange noise coming from his mouth. Severus was laughing! The noise hardened Hermione's resolve and she managed to push him away, though she could still not bring herself to grab her wand.

"You're vile." She spat.

"Yes," Severus answered, still laughing quietly.

"You're cruel and unbearable and infuriating," Hermione continued, pouring as much venom into her voice as she could.

"Yes."

"You're vindictive and ugly and an insufferable know-it-all."

"Yes," Severus smiled as he moved towards her again.

Hermione stood still where she was, not backing away, not moving any closer. "I hate you," She sneered.

"As I hate you," Severus replied, closing the gap between them.

She felt his hands on her waist, gripping a bit harder than she would normally like. It didn't seem as though he would allow her to push him away again, even if she wanted to. And although she was loathe to admit it, she didn't want to.

"You're a good snog." She said quietly, her eyes staring right into his, daring him to taunt her.

And once again, she found Severus smiling without the use of his mouth, "As are you," he whispered quietly before putting his mouth to much better use.


End file.
